Counting Adam age 1 = year 2 of World

results in anno 1657 date of Flood

          The usual 1656 date of the flood is due to inconsistent counting of Adam's birth year.  The actual year in which a person is 1 year old is the second year of life.  On the assumption that the first year of life is counted by months, expressed by 0 years in the charts, the flood begins in 1657.   The reasons that others come up with 1656 instead of 1657 are two.   First, some count the first year of creation as 0 instead of 1.  The chronology is the same, but the years are mislabeled.   Second, some count a zero year for all generations except for Adam, whose birth year is counted as 1.    This results in 1656 also, which is not a mislabeling, but a wrong chronology.

           Both results are inconsistent, and agree only to the naive.  However, the truth is not a democracy of 2 views against 1.   First, it is improper procedure to count the first year of the world as 0.   Natural counting does not begin with 0, but with 1.   If David counted 5 stones beginning with 0, then the stated result would be 4, which would not reflect the truth that the answer is really five.  So it is with chronologies that count the first year of the world as 0 and end up with 1656 as the year of the flood.   The answer is really 1657, and should be so stated.   That is 1657 years enumerated.  Creation is in the first year enumerated.

           If we were to enumerate Adam's years, then his first year would be the 0th year of age, or his first 12 months.  However, age is not enumerated.  This is why the first year of Adam is the 0th year of age.  Age years are tallied after they are completed.   Adam lives 130 years, and begets Seth.  This means 130 years completed, meaning that Seth was born in the 131st year enumerated.

            To be consistent one must count all years the same way.  Those incorrect chronologies that count the first year of Adam (enumerated) as equal to the first year of age (i.e. Year 1 of Creation = Year 1 of Adam) always fail to similarly count the first year as year one of age in the subsequent chronology.   This inconsistency is hidden in the use of arithmetic rather than using a charting method that keeps arithmetic and enumeration clearly distinct

            One who adds up all the age components till the flood ends up with 1656.

           Math, however, does not always reflect reality.   If I ask you to tell me how many numbers you can enumerate from 2 to 9, and you use math to get an answer (9-2=7) of 7, then you will be flat wrong.  Count the numbers rather than trusting math: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.   You will see that 8 numbers can be enumerated.

            The above 1656 summation in reality counts Adam's 1st year (enumerated) as the 1st year of age, and then counts everyone else from Seth to Noah as the 1st year (enumerated) as the 0th year of age.  The math hides the fact that 105 years of Seth are added to the end of Adam's 130.  That implies the synchronism of 130th Adam = 0 Seth, and 131st Adam = 1st Seth.   The only way to be consistent is to synchronize the first year of the world with Adam's 0th year,  1st Year of Creation = 0th Year of Adam.

            The only question that remains then, is does the chronology count all birth years as 1st years including Adam's, i.e. 1st year of Creation = 1st year of Adam, and 130th year of Adam = 1st year of Seth?  It will be easy to show that age should always be counted as 1st year = 0th of age, 2nd year = 1st of age, by showing what happens when we do otherwise.

               First equate the birth year with year 1 of age for all generations.   We see that the flood will be in 1647 because overlapping the figures looses exactly 1 year per generation.  There are 10 generations, and 1657 - 10 = 1647.   Now in the last column I stopped at Methuselah and added the number of years remaining until his death at 969 years, which results in the 1649th year of creation, which is two years after the flood date.  Since this is impossible, then equating the birth year to year 1 of age is clearly wrong.   And if it is clearly wrong for Seth to Noah, it is clearly wrong for Adam also.

                Let us now correct this matter:

            Now, Methuselah dies at the coming of Noah's 600th year just as the prophecy says, "Dying it will come";  There is a spiritual message here.   The Creator's word is so exact that Methuselah died between the 1st day of the 1st month of Noah's 600th year, and the 17th day of the 2nd month of Noah's 600th year when the flood came.  The prophetic promise was exactly kept.