The Age of Instruction (2001-4000)
From the Book Reckoning of Time
At this point, the world entered The Age of Instruction which commenced in year 2001. In 2016 Avram, at the age of seventy-five, received the promise of the Covenant after which he entered the land of Kana’an, the Land of Promise, and sojourn in Hebron for 25 years. In 2027 Ishmael was born when Avram was 86.
In Gen 14:18 we are told about a peculiar encounter between Avraham and Malkitsedeq, king of Shalem. However, we are not told when it took place. It must have taken place sometime between year 2016 when Avram had entered the land and 2027 when Ishmael was born is the opinion of the present author.
And Malkitsedeq king of Shalem brought out bread and wine. Now he was the priest of the Most High El. (Gen 14:18)
Who was this Malkitsedeq and why did Abraham pay a tithe to him? The answer may be again found in the Book of Yasher. This apocryphal book contains this same account but with some important additional information:
And Adonizedek king of Yerushalayim, the same was Shem, went out with his men to meet Abram and his people, with bread and wine, and they remained together in the valley of Melech. And Adonizedek blessed Abram, and Abram gave him a tenth from all that he had brought from the spoil of his enemies, for Adonizedek was a priest before God. (Yasher 16:11-12)
According to the Book of Yasher Avraham tithed to Melchizadek because he was a “priest.” How is it that Melchizadek is called a “priest”? Yasher reveals the identity of Melchizadek saying “the same was Shem” (this identity of Melchizadek is also recorded in the Talmud in b.Ned. 32). The Book of Yasher also records the fact that Shem had been Avraham’s Torah teacher:
And when Avram came out from the cave, he went to Noach and his son Shem, and he remained with them to learn the instruction [Torah] of YHVH and his ways, and no man knew where Avram was, and Avram served Noach and Shem his son for a long time. And Avram was in Noach’s house thirty-nine years, and Abram knew YHVH from three years old, and he went in the ways of YHVH until the day of his death, as Noach and his son Shem had taught him; (Yasher 9:5-6)
The Midrash Aggadah (Targum Jonathan, Ned. 32b, Mid. Ps. 76:3) states that he was Shem, the son of Noach. Thus Avraham might have paid the tithe to Shem because Shem had been his personal Torah teacher.
In the land the Creator made the Covenant with him and in year 2040 the Covenant was sealed through Avram’s circumcision at the age of 99 and on Passover that year Yitshak was promised. At making of the Covenant, his name was changed from Avram to Avraham and his wife’s name Sarai to Sarah. This took place one year before the birth of Yitzchak, so she was then eighty-nine years old.
In 2040 Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. In 2041, on Passover, Avraham fathered the promised son, Yitshak, at the age of 100 and Sarah was 90 years old. In the Sabbatical year of 2042, Avraham settled in the land of the Philistines for 26 years and thus separated himself from Lot once for all. In 2046, Ishmael, 19, afflicted Yitshak, 5, starting 400 years of affliction until the Exodus. Ishmael was seperated from the promised son Yitshak and began his own nation.
In 2067, Avraham returned to Hebron and in the Sabbatical year of 2078, on Passover, Avraham, 137, offered Yitshak, 37, as sacrifice. Sarah died at the age of 127 same year. In 2081, Yitshak married Rivkah three years later when he was 40 years old.
In year 2101, the first year of the 42nd Jubilee, Yitshak fathered Esav and Ya’akov, when he was 60 years old.
In year 2116 Avraham died fifteen years after the birth of his grandsons and three years after his death Shelah died in 2119 at the age of 433.
In year 2151 which was the first year of the 44th Jubilee, Shem died at the age of 600, 500 years after his son’s Arpakshad birth.
Except our first parent, Adam, there was, perhaps, never a mere man who saw so much grief as Shem did. Not only did he see a vast apostasy before and after the awful catastrophe of the flood, which he witnessed, but he lived to bury eight generation of his descendants which must have deeply grieved him. He lived 502 years after the flood, and as the lives of men were rapidly shortened after that event, all generations of his lineal descendants except Ever died before him (Gen_11:10-32). Jubilees Table shows that Shem was old enough to bury many generations after him.
In the Sabbatical year 2164, Esav sold his birthright to Ya’akov and Ya’akov at 63 left his father and mother in order to escape the wrath of his brother. That year Ishmael died at the age of 137.
Per tradition (Seder Olam, ch. 2 see below), Ya’akov hid himself at Ever where he studied Torah fourteen years or two Sabbatical cycles from 2165 until 2178. And in 2179 he went to Lavan and worked for Leah seven years until 2185 which was one sabbatical cycle.
In the Sabbatical year 2178, on his way to the land of Haran, Ya’akov dreamed and saw a ladder between the earth and the heavens, and messengers of Elohim going up and coming down on it and YHVH standing above it. In this dream, YHVH confirmed the Covenant which He made with Avraham and Yitshak to give him the land on which he was lying and to his seed (Gen_28:12-14). When Ya’akov woke up called this place Bethel, House of El, and anointed the stone he had put under his head as a standing column (Gen_28:16-19) thus setting the corner stone for the future Temple which his son King Solomon should build and dedicate 796 years later in year 2974.
In 2180, Ya’akov’s Torah teacher Ever died at the age of 464.
In 2186 Ya’akov married Leah and Rachel and worked for his second wife Rachel until 2192, another sabbatical cycle. During this sabbatical cycle, all his sons but Binyamin were born and in 2193 his daughter Dinah was born.
In the Sabbatical year of 2192 Ya’akov fathered Yoseph at the age of 91 and left the land of Haran in the next sabbatical year of 2199, thus he had been outside of the Land for twenty years.
In the Jubilee year of 2200 Ya’akov entered the Land of Promise and reunited with his father Yitshak, 159, after twenty-two years of grief. In support of this understanding is the quote from Gen. Rabbah 84:20, Meg. 16b-17a:
Twenty-two years from the time he (Joseph) left him until Ya’akov went down to Egypt, as it is said: “Joseph was seventeen years old, etc.” (verse 2), and he was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh, and the seven years of plenty, “For this is already two years of the famine” (Gen. 45:6) when Ya’akov came to Egypt. Here are 22 years corresponding to the 22 years that Ya’akov did not fulfill [the mitzvah] to honor his father and mother: 20 years that he was in Laban’s house, and two years that he was on the road when he returned from Laban’s house, one and a half years in Succoth and six months in Beth-el. This is what he [meant when he] said to Laban, “This is twenty years for me in your house” (Gen. 31:41). They are for me, upon me, and I will ultimately suffer [for twenty years], corresponding to them.
In the Sabbatical year 2207, Rachel died in Beth Lechem giving birth to his last son Binyamin. In year, 2209, his beloved son Yoseph was sold in slavery when Ya’akov was 108 years old and his father, Yitshaq, 168. Yitshaq died at age of 180 in year 2221 which was also a Sabbath.
Let us reckon the life of Yitshak as the events took place:
Gen_25:20 tells us that Yitshak was 40 years old when he married Rivkah.
Gen_25:26 tells us he was 60 years old when the twins were born.
Gen_26:34 tells us that Esav was 40 when he married, making Yitshak 100 at that time.
Gen_31:38 tells us that Ya’akov was gone from Yitshak for more than 20 years.
Gen_35:28 tells us that Yitshak was 180 when he died. His death took place after Ya’akov was back in the Promised Land.
Now, we read in Seder Olam, ch. 2 (see also Jubilees Table):
The selling of Joseph [actually] preceded Isaac’s demise by 12 years, for when Jacob was born, Isaac was 60 years old, and Isaac died in Jacob’s 120th year, for it is stated: “and Isaac was sixty years old” (Gen_25:26)-if you subtract 60 from 180 [Isaac’s age at his death], you have 120 left. Joseph was 17 years old when he was sold, and that year was Jacob’s 108th year. How so? He was blessed at the age of 63, for 14 years he hid in the academy of Eber, totaling 77. He worked 14 years for a wife, and at the end of the 14 years, Joseph was born, as it is said: “Now it came to pass when Rachel had borne Joseph, etc.” (Gen_30:25). The total is 91. [Add to this] the 17 [years] until Joseph was sold, and it totals 108. (Moreover, it is explicit that from when Joseph was sold until Jacob came to Egypt, 22 years had passed, as it is said: “And Joseph was thirty years old, etc.” (Gen_41:46), and the seven years of plenty and two years of [the] famine [had elapsed before Jacob’s arrival.] This totals 22. And it is written:“The days of the years of my sojournings are one hundred thirty years” (Gen_47:9). [Since Jacob arrived in Egypt at age 130, 22 years after Joseph had been sold,] it follows that Jacob was 108 when he (Joseph) was sold.)
Insert: The story of selling Yoseph in slavery might belong sometime after the rape of Dinah, 14, and after or before the birth of Benjamin and the death of Rachel. The first indication of this is in Gen_37:3 where we find that Ya’akov loved Yoseph more than all his children. If Binyamin had been born before Yoseph was sold, then it was Binyamin who should rightfully be declared the son of Ya’akov’s old age. The failure to mention Binyamin raises the question as to whether he was born before Yoseph was sold in slavery.
The second indication is given years later at the meeting of Yoseph and Binyamin in Egypt. Yoseph unrecognized by his brothers inquired about their family and accused them of being spies. They revealed that they were ten of twelve sons of one man (Gen_42:13).Yoseph then demanded that they would bring their youngest brother to him in order to prove their tale. Later, when Yoseph saw Binyamin, it was as though he had never seen him before or the other possibility that Binyamin was too little when they were separated.
However, in Yoseph’s dream in Gen_37:9 while he was still with the family at the age of seventeen, he saw eleven stars bowing down to him which in the context of the dream were eleven sons. It is not clear from the text whether that was a reference to the current family status (Binyamin already born) or the future one when his father, mother, and the eleven brothers would bow down to him in Egypt. However, was his mother (Rachel) not already dead? But most likely the dream referred to Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, who had raised Yoseph as if she were his mother (Gen. Rabbah 84:11). The understanding of the present author is that his dream was for the former (at the time of the dream) rather than the latter and Binyamin’s birth might have been after Dina’s rape and before Yoseph was sold in slavery and more precisely stated: two years before Yoseph’s abduction, this being the earliest estimate (Gen_35:16-19). At the time when the whole family went down to Egypt, Binyamin was old enough to have fathetred ten sons: 24 years old. See Yovelim Table.
Yoseph became viceroy of Egypt at the age of 30 in 2222. In 2223 the seven years of plenty in Egypt started. Menasheh and Ephrayim were born in 2227 when Yoseph was 35 years old. In 2230 seven years of drought started after the seven years of plenty.
Ya’akov at the age 130 went down to Egypt and reunited with his son Yoseph in the second year of famine which was year 2231.
We may notice that as his father Yitshak bereaved of him for 22 years, so did Ya’akov bereave of Yoseph for 22 years.
Two years before the end of the 45th Jubilee, 2248, Ya’akov died in Egypt at 147. Two years after the end of the 46th Jubilee, year 2302, his son, Yoseph, died being 110 years old.
There is a peculiar pattern present in the lives of Yitshak and Ya’akov. Yoseph was seventeen years old when he left Israel to visit his brothers (Gen_37:2) and Ya’akov was 130 years old when he met Pharaoh (Gen_47:7-9) and 147 when he died (Gen_47:28). This means that Ya’akov was in Egypt for seventeen years before he died. Thus, we observe the following pattern:
1. Yitshak is bereft of his son for twenty-two years.
2. Israel is with Yoseph for seventeen years
3. Israel is bereft of his son for twenty-two years.
4. Israel is with Yoseph for seventeen years
We should not miss the fact that Yitshak, Ya’akov’s father, was likewise bereft of his son for twenty-two years. Rivkah sent Ya’akov away from the family for “a few days” (Gen_27:43-45) but Ya’akov quickly fell in love with Rachel and agreed to work for her father for seven years as a dowry for his bride to be (Gen_29:18-20). After seven years of labor, however, Lavan deceived Ya’akov and gave him Leah, the older sister, instead of Rachel. When confronted with his deceitful action, Lavan convinced Ya’akov to work yet another seven years for Rachel (Gen_29:25-28). When Ya’akov fulfilled his seven-year commitment for Rachel, Lavan once more convinced Ya’akov to stay for yet another six years to work for his flocks. Ya’akov revealed that he had been with Lavan for twenty years (Gen_31:38).
Thus, Ya’akov willingly remained separated from his mother and father for twenty-two years, therefore, for twenty-two years Yitshak and Rivkah grieved the absence of their son. Ya’akov was suffering the same grief for his son Yoseph, believing that Yoseph was dead, as his father Yitshak did: measure-for-measure justice.
In year 2326 twenty-four years after Yoseph’s death, Levi died and sometime after the end of that generation which went down to Egypt, the slavery or the Egyptian exile began most likely in year 2359 (being the latest estimate).
In year 2360, Miriam Mosheh’s sister was born and in 2363 Aharon was born. In year 2366, Mosheh was born to become the prince of Egypt and at the age of 40, in the Sabbatical year of 2407, he escaped to Midian (Act_7:22-25) where he lived in the next 40 years until he was called by YHVH to lead the exodus of Israel out of Egypt in 2447. That year, in the third month, the Torah was given to Israel at Mount Sinai.
In 2448, Israel rejected the Promised Land by her disobedience and were exiled in Arabia for 40 years until the last Israelite who rebelled against Elohim died.
In year 2486, the year when Israel stood again at the threshold of the Promised Land, Aharon at 123, and Mosheh at 120 died; per the tradition, Yehoshua was 82 years old that year.
After Mosheh died, the people mourned for him 40 days, and then under the leadership of Yehoshua the conquest of the land began in 2487.
The land was partially conquered in 2493, the first year of the last sabbatical cycle of the 50th Jubilee and in 2500, the 50th Jubilee, its division was concluded and the land was inherited by the twelve tribes.
Therefore, there were fifty jubilees from the year when Adam was expelled from the Garden until his decendants through Shem inherited it again in the Jubilee Year of 2500, and seventy more jubilees when his people will inherited again in the Jubilee Year of 6000.
And in year 2501, the first year of the 51st Jubilee, the laws of Sabbaths and Jubilees were in force and the Tabernacle was erected in Shiloh. Seven years later, on Yom Bikkurim in the twenty-first year after they came into the land, in 2507, the first Sabbatical year in the Land was celebrated and the Land had its first rest.
In 2514, the second Sabbatical year, Yehoshua died at the age of 110.
And after him all that generation that Yehoshua led in the land likewise died, and another generation arose after them who did not know YHVH and what He had done for Israel. And in the following eighteen years there was lawlessness and disorder in the land. Israel served Aram for eight years until YHVH raised the next judge of Israel: Othni’el son of Qenaz, Kalev’s younger brother, who delivered the people from Aram and the land had peace for 40 years. This is how the period of the Judges of Israel began.
In 2836, Shimshon was born and the Philistine servitude began and lasted 40 years. Shimshon started ruling over Israel as a judge in year 2856 and ruled 20 years until 2875, the year in which the Philistine servitude ended.
In the next year, 2876, the Ark was abducted by the Philistines. Upon hearing of that Eli the High Priest and Judge of Israel died and Shemuel was established as a judge over all Israel. The Ark remained at the Philistines for seven months after which it was returned to Israel and remained in Qiryat Ye’arim for twenty years until the period of Judges ended.
In year 2883 Shemuel anointed the first king of Israel, Shaul who would reign over Israel for 40 years. Two years later, in the Sabbatical year 2885, Elohim rejected Shaul as king for his disobedience and in the following year, 2886, once more.
In 2894, David was born and in 2896, Shemuel was established as a prophet with which the period of the Judges ended; total of 450 years, from year 2447 when the first judge, Mosheh, was established until 2896 when the last one Shemuel.
In 2915, 436-year countdown began for the violation of the Sabbaths of the land until 70 Sabbaths and Jubilees had been accrued. In the next year 2916, the future king of Israel, David, was anointed.
In 2922, King Shaul and his sons were killed in the battle with the Philistines (1Sa_28:19) and in 2923, King David at the age of 30 began to reign for 40 years (2Sa_5:4). At the age of 37, he captured Yerushalayim with which the anger of Elohim ended after 430 years counted from year 2501 (the first year of the 51st Jubilee) when the laws of the Sabbaths and Jubilees came in force.
In 2941, Shlomo, son of King David was born and in 2963, at the age of 22 he began to reign for 40 years.
In 2966 his fourth year of reign the construction of the Temple of YHVH began, 480 years after the crossing of the Yarden River. In 2973, in the eighth month, the construction of the Temple was finished in the following year 2974, in the seventh month of the year, on Sukkot, the Temple was dedicated.
In 3003, the son of King Shlomo, Rehavam, began to reign for 17 years; in the same year the kingdom was divided into the northern kingdom aka House of Israel and the southern kingdom, the House of Yehudah. For the reigns of the kings of Yehudah and the years of their accessions see Jubilees Table.
In the Sabbatical year 3207 which was the second year of King Ahaz it was prophesied that within sixty-five years Ephrayim would be broken as a people.
In 3210 King Koresh was prophesied that he would be the king who would build Yerushalayim and the Temple (Isa_44:28).
And in 3227, the northern kingdom Israel was exiled by Ashur in the sixth year of King Hizqiyahu which was a termination of Ephrayim as a kingdom (2Ki_17:1-6). And forty-four years later, in the Sabbatical year 3271, Ephrayim ceased to exist as a nation in order to fulfill the prophecy of Isa_7:8.
In the 14th year of King Hizqiyahu, YHVH gave the victory over the Assyrians who came and besieged Yerushalayim and Hizqiyahu’s life was prolonged with 15 more years; that took place on the night of Passover, 14th of the Aviv of the Sabbatical year 3235.
In 3310, in the 13th year of King Yoshiyahu, YHVH gave warning to Yehudah through the prophet Yirmeyahu that the 40 years of the countdown for the iniquities of Yehudah began. This countdown ended in the 10th year of King Tsidqiyahu when the servants were not freed in the Sabbatical year of 3349 thus profaning the covenant that YHVH made with the king to proclaim liberty unto them.
In the Sabbatical year of 3314, Ezekiel the prophet was born.
In the Sabbatical year of 3328, King Yoshiyahu died in the battle at Megiddo with the Pharaoh of Egypt. In the same year King Yehoahaz began to reign and he reigned only three months. And in 3329 King Yehoyaqim ascended to the throne after him to rule 11 years.
In 3331, Yerushalayim was besieged by Nebukadnetsar and King Yehoyaqim became a vassal of him. In the fourth year of the king, which was the first year of Nebukadnetsar as king of Babylon, the warning for the imminent 70-year Babylonian exile was given through the prophet Yirmeyahu (Jer_25:1). King Yehoyaqim rebelled against Nebukadnetsar after having been a subject to him for three years. The king of Babylon came and besieged Yerushalayim again and the first wave of the Babylonian exile took place in year 3333.
In 3338, the city was besieged once more and the following year, 3339, King Yehoyaqim was taken prisoner to Babylon with the second wave of the exile and Yehoyakin was set on the throne who reigned only three months. When this king rebelled against Babylon, as his predecessors did, Nebukadnetsar made Tzidqiyahu king in his stead, who would be the last king of the troubled kingdom.
King Tzidqiyahu reigned 11 years in wickedness. Yerushalayim was breached in the 10th year of King Tsidqiyahu (the 18th year of Nebukadnetsar) which was the last Sabbatical year of 3349 of the 67th Jubilee in order to fulfill the warning of Elohim that His people would be punished for their wickedness; 832 people were exiled and in the 11th year of the king, on the ninth of the fifth month of the Jubilee year of 3350, Nebuzaradan burned the Temple and Yerushalayim and took into exile the rest of the people, but he left some of the poor of the land. He appointed Gedalyahu over the people who were left in the land of Yehudah.
The following year, 3351 was the first year of the 68th Jubilee cycle. That was the first year in which the Land began its rightful rest until 70 years of the Babylonian exile were completed.
Yishma’el, of the seed of the reign, killed Gedalyahu and the Chaldeans who were with him. And all the people rose up and went to Egypt, for the fear of the Chaldeans. And in year 3354, Nebuzaradan came again in the land and exiled 745 people which makes total of 4,600 people exiled in Bavel.
In the Sabbatical year of 3364, in the twenty-fifth year of the second exile, in the first month of the year, on the tenth of the month, which was also the fourteenth year after Yerushalayim was smitten, on that same day when the Passover lambs were taken home, the prophet Ezekiel received the vision of the Millennium Temple (Eze_40:1).
In year 3420, the Medes and Persians conquered Babylon in the first year of King Koresh. After the fall of Babylon when the 70 years of exile ended, King Koresh of Persia, in his first year (the seventieth of the exile) issued his famous declaration which allowed those desiring to return to Zion to do so and to build the Temple.
In the Sabbatical year of 3421, 42,360 plus 7,337 servants left with Zerubavel (grandson of Yehoyakin) thus having put the Babylonian exile to an end. Israel legally returned to the Promised Land in 3421 and lived there until the Sabbatical year of 4092, AD 135, when Rome completely devastated the land.
In 3439, King Daryavesh made a second decree concerning the building of the Temple, which was a confirmation of King Koresh’s decree, and the construction of the second Temple was finished in 3443, the sixth year of the king.
In the last Sabbatical year 3499 of the 70th jubilee cycle, which was the sixth year of the reign of King Artahshashta, the king issued the edict to beautify the Temple. This decree, as shown in the study was the spoken word that initiated Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy for the comming of the Messiah. Ezra left Babylon with the third exile in the Jubilee year of 3500.
In the second Sabbatical year of 3514 of 71st jubilee cycle, King Artahshashta issued a decree to rebuilt the walls of Yerushalayim. Nechemyah lead the fourth return to the land and became a governor, and Ezra, a priest, of the people for twelve years until 3525.
In 3922, 37 BC, King Herod began his reign and in 3940, 19 BC, the reconstruction of the Second Temple began which would become known as Herod’s Temple.
In 3956, 3 BC, Yeshua the Messiah of Israel was born in Bethlehem, Yehudah. In 3958, 1 BC, Yeshua was taken to Egypt to escape the massacre of innocent infants and returned in Nazareth after Herod’s death in January same year. In 3968 Yeshua, 12, taught at the Temple on Passover.
In 3983, the last week of the 70 weeks of Daniel’s prophecy began. Next year, on Yom Kippurim of 3984, was the year when Yeshua began His 70-week ministry.
In 3983, 25 AD, on Sukkot, Daniel’s last prophetic week began. In 3984, 26 AD, on Yom Kippur, the Messiah began His ministry and in the Sabbatical year of 3985, 27 AD, He called His disciples to follow Him after the Feast of Tabernacles and in the middle of the prophetic week of the prophet Daniel, the Messiah died not for Himself on Passover of 3986, 28 April, 28 AD.
3989 was the last year of this prophetic week and the end of Daniel’s prophecy.
In the Sabbatical year of 3999, 41 AD, King Herod Agrippa began to reign.