The ages of the patriarchs and the zodiac

Faith & Science Conversation
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There is a good argument to be made (which I agree with) that the ages of the patriarchs listed in Genesis 5 represent the amount of years it would take for a new moon to occur at the same celestial location in the next zodiacal sign. https://www.academia.edu/120374289/Teaching_The_Astronomical_Visualization_Used_For_The_Explanation_Of_The_Ancient_Ein_Gedi_Archaeological_Zodiac_And_Its_Related_Inscription

This argument might be difficult for many creationists. If we reject the argument in the paragraph above, then we might be conceding a significant amount of ground to the secular historians who claim the ancient Jews just stole all of their knowledge of astronomy from the Babylonians in 600BC and retrofitted it into their beliefs. And if we say both are true, that they are literal ages which coincide with astronomical phenomena, then how is that not an endorsement of astrology? Furthermore, if we now say that these ages were never meant to be taken literally, then what good reason do we have to explain why God would hide this from us?

I was wondering if anyone here has any thoughts about this. I have been a creationist for decades I have never heard anyone discuss this before.

Thank you for your time.

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Welcome to the Forum.

I took a quick look at the paper and am confused by the first paragraph. It says

And then it says

How can anything which discards “the precession of the Earth axis” be considered “detailed scientific”. It doesn’t jive.

Given the Jews spent hundreds of years in Babylon they didn’t steal the knowledge but simply absorbed it.

Why do you assume He hide anything? The original readers wouldn’t have taken the ages literally so why should we?

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Yes that part is a little confusing. But my understand is that it’s saying that when the Septuagint was written, the dates were updated to reflect the “modern” understanding the greeks had of astronomy at that time.

That’s a good point But, It seems to me that if all of the Jews once knew that the ages were not meant to be taken literally then then knowledge of what these ages were intended to represent, would not have been lost.

It is the Torah after all..

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I doubt the Babylonians would have been impressed at all with Daniel and his peers if they were not at least their equal when it came to knowledge of astronomy. Such knowledge would have been a litmus test of divine wisdom to the ancients back then.

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Hi, welcome to the forum. What do you think about the line of reasoning in this article? I don’t think you have to conflate Hebrew numerology (which assigned meaning to certain numbers and used that meaning poetically or symbolically in literature) and pagan astrology.

https://biologos.org/articles/long-life-spans-in-genesis-literal-or-symbolic

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Thanks.

I would say the point is certainly worthy of consideration. But that would make the literal ages and their correspondence to the particular lunar cycles mentioned in the paper I posted a rather unlikely coincidence, I think.

Also, it would be odd if the Bible contained no astronomical reckonings whatsoever, in particular advanced knowledge of lunar cycles or knowhow of an ecliptic coordinate system, considering how important sabbaths and other calendar events were to ancient Jews.

Maybe there is a better answer we haven’t thought of yet?