…continued from here
- Gen 11:22 Serug lived thirty years, and begot Nahor.
Serug means “branch”, “layer or twining” so he may represent something that is found up in the trees and or is a nest builder using intertwined twigs. Birds come to mind right away, but are much more distantly related to us. Rodents and tree shrews build nests, and tree shrews in particular spend a lot of time up in the branches of a tree. Scientific estimate for our common decent with tree shrews is 85 mya and with rodents is 90 mya. Also song birds (who live in trees) split from water birds about 90 mya. Serug is a type representing tree shrews. 72.6 + (30 x 365 x 1000) = approx. 83.6 mya
- Gen 11:20 Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot Serug.
Reu means “friend, shepherd”. Who is man’s best friend? That’s right, dogs not only are our best friend but they are our nose and ears. Some of them even help herd the sheep. That was an easy one. Scientific estimate for our common decent with the dog or “boreoeutheria” is 95 mya. Reu is a type representing dogs. 83.6 + (32 x 365 x 1000) = approx. 95.3 mya
- Gen 11:18 Peleg lived thirty years, and begot Reu.
Peleg means “split or divide” and may be in reference to a stream or canal dividing. One thing that is common with all placental mammals is that they have a water that breaks, when the placenta splits open during live birth. Scientific estimate for our common decent with all placental mammals is 105 mya. While Peleg may also be another reference to the break up of Pangea (see next), he is a type representing placental mammals. 95.3 + (30 x 365 x 1000) = approx. 106.2 mya
- Gen 11:16 Eber lived thirty-four years, and begot Peleg.
Eber means “to cross over, beyond” or crossing to “the region beyond”. Currently there is no common descendent with humans that scientifically lines up with the timeframe of Eber. So Eber’s name probably has more to do with something else that is occurring during this time. The break up of Pangea after it has been split up. 106.2 + (34 x 365 x 1000) = approx. 118.6 mya
- Gen 11:14 Salah lived thirty years, and begot Eber.
Salah, (other translations spelled: Shelah) means “petition, breaks, divides”. Salah’s name is another reference to the breakup of Pangea, which the Tower of Babel is also a type for. 118.6 + (30 x 365 x 1000) = approx. 129.6 mya
The supercontinent of Pangea started splitting up in different ways as far back as 200 mya. If we take a look at when South America split from Africa though, that was about 140 mya. North America split from Europe about 80 mya. Those two split ups average out to about 110 mya.
- Gen 11:12 Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, and begot Salah.
Arphaxad’s name meaning appears to be unclear. However it becomes clearer if we know about what timeframe we are looking at and how to do compound word puzzles. Breaking the name down in smaller parts we get “pluck or gather”, “flask or vial”, “here or hither”, and “breast or bosom”. Marsupials have premature (plucked) young (vial) that must find their way (hither) to their mothers pouch (bosom). Scientific estimate for our common decent with all marsupials is 160 mya. Arphaxad is a type representing marsupials. 129.6 + (35 x 365 x 1000) = approx. 142.4 mya. The margin of error for this one is about 12% which is as bad as it gets.
- Gen 11:10 This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood.
Shem means “name, fame, renown, or upright”. For this one I had to look at another source for name meanings and then was inspired to look at the meaning of all three brothers together: Shem (upright), Ham (to incline) and Japheth (to expand, spread flat).
Scientific estimate for our common decent with all mammals is 175 mya. Shem is a type representing all mammals. 142.4 + (100 x 365 x 1000) = approx. 178.9 mya.