In the structure of the text (Gen.10:21-25) Abraham's ancestor Heber/עבר (B5 at the Babel Division in the graph on the previous page) is presented as the origin of the people-group called Hebrew, of whom "Abram the Hebrew" is its most famous representative. This affirms the genealogy's purpose as specifically Abrahamic history, and that it is not a time-measure for general chronological purposes as it has sometimes been unfortunately used.

Concerning the dispersion of the human race after Babel, language often provides a reflection of movements of populations. For instance –
  • The Latin 'ignis' (fire) is related to the Indian Sanskrit goddess of fire 'Agni' (modern Urdu for fire 'ag', is derived from this).
  • The Biblical Hebrew word for Greeks, sons of 'Javan' (Gen.10:4), is related to the name 'Ionian' for the earliest Greeks.

Chronology is not the purpose of Abraham's genealogy. This is affirmed by its stylised structure in the Genesis record (10–FLOOD–10). That is, the stylised nature of the Abraham's ancestral genealogy means that the number of generations cannot be used for chronological purposes as it does not necessarily include all generations ('father of...' = ancestor of...). An understandably negative reaction to evolutionary theory should not be allowed to colour our approach to precious Holy Scripture.

New Testament (in Luke) shows us that our existing Hebrew copies of Genesis have lost one generation from this Genesis genealogy, which has unfortunately helped hide its stylised structure, and it has also lost the age factor of that particular ancestor ('Cainan').

This irregular use of dateing is indicated in the Israel Time-line by the use of "?" after a date. ('c.' abbreviates 'circa' meaning 'about', i.e. approximately).

An abrupt warming period begins (according to Greenland ice-core analysis).

The warming period ends, beginning the Younger Dryas cold spell or Big Freeze, lasting about 1,300 years.
(Greenland ice core GISP2 indicates that its summit was ~15°C colder during Younger Dryas than it is today).

Hilazon Tachtit, in Israel's Galilee, a cave grave of a 45-year-old female Shaman from this time is later found in 2008.

Warming period begins again, and the Ice Age ends. Bristlecone Pines begin to grow near the California-Nevada border.

Mt. Mazama, in America's Pacific North West, erupts violently leaving ash deposits over stone tools of the earliest inhabitants. These help to date the earlier caucasian Ainu-type (Jomon) 'Kennewick' man's remains from that area. Later a fragment of his fifth left metacarpal, analysed by (AMS) radio-carbon dating, was shown to have an isotopically-corrected age of 8410 +/- 60 Before Present.

In the Arabian perninsula, the neolithic al-Maqar civilization uses domesticated horses.

Glacial ice-cores on Kilimanjaro indicate the beginning of a 500 year drying period of the lakes of Africa.

Greenland ice-core indicates an abrupt century-long cold event.

The Mediterranean Sea breaks through with devastating force to fill the Black Sea basin (~50 cubic km per day). This shift of water-mass helps trigger earthquakes throughout the region. The catastrophic drowning of such a large area causes vast human migrations. (See 2715 BC also). (The ancient shoreline of its old freshwater lake now lies some 168 metres below the 1999AD/CE sea level).

Nile river changes its course, from feeding the North African lakes, to flowing into the Mediterranean, thus creating Egypt along its watered valley.

sea level at this time is still about 50 feet below present levels. (Holocene Optimum).

In Mesopotamia – The city of Uruk (Erech/ארך) is founded in southern Mesopotamia by Nimrod (נמרוד) on the fertile alluvial plain beside the Euphrates river.
In Egypt – A decimal number system is in use.
In Mesoamerica – The planting of maize begins on forest-cleared land.

Date of Creation, according to rabbinic Judaism (See also: Judaism's 9th century AD/CE dating system origin), ditto.

A period of significantly higher Nile floods begins, continuing until c.2500 BC.
Uruk city-culture begins to spread across Mesopotamia and eventually as far as Anatolia (modern Turkey) by traders and colonists.

In Egypt – The first symbols for numbers and simple straight lines are used.

Birth of ARPHAXAD, father/ancestor of CAINAN (See Table 1).

The ancient Egyptians begin to develop mummification of the dead. (See: mummification).

Birth of CAINAN, father/ancestor of SHELAH.
Glacial ice-cores indicate the beginning of a hot dry period collapsing many nomadic cultures.

The first-known political state in history forms – known as the 'Uruk expansion'.
World sea level now stabilizes to near its present level.

August 11: Starting point of the Mayan calendar (in Mesoamerica).

February 18: Hindu mythology date for the beginning of the Kali era (in India).

In Egypt – King MENES (Hor-Aha) unites the kingdoms of Upper (south) Egypt and Lower (the Delta) Egypt with his capital at Memphis.
An earliest form of writing appears on clay tablets in Uruk.

Birth of SHELAH, father/ancestor of (H)EBER.

Babylonians begin to use a sexagesimal number system (base 60) for recording financial transactions. It is a place-value system without a zero place-value. This is reflected today in our measurement of time and angles (i.e 6x60 degrees in a circle)

Birth of (H)EBER, father of PELEG, and patronymic ancestor of the Hebrews (Gen.10:21; 11:16).

Birth of PELEG, father/ancestor of REU, in whose time the human family divided at Babel (Gen.10:25).
PELEG's birth, so named for its association with the division of the human race at Babel, almost certainly long predates the death of Ötzi above, further indicating that Abrahamic genealogy cannot be used for chronology.

Dendrochronology date (tree-ring dating) for a catastrophic Black Sea land subsidence that buries all Early Bronze Age settlements in that region under what is now 8-10 metres of water.

GILGAMESH (grandson of ENMERKAR), king of Uruk (Erech), 'visits' aged UTNAPISHTIM (Noah) of the Great Flood.

Birth of REU, SERUG's father/ancestor.

ZOAR (Djoser/Netjerykhet) King of Upper and Lower Egypt of the 3rd dynasty. (His step pyramid, designed by the high priest of Ra, IMHOTEP, is the earliest complete building of hewn stone in Egypt, the complex covering 15 ha / 37 acres).

the "Great Death Pit" cemetery at Ur, so called because it held the bodies of seventy-three retainers who apparently died as part of the royal funeral.
Reprinted from Woolley's The Royal Cemetery, Ur Excavations, Vol. 2, published in 1934. C. Leonard Woolley, 1934, and the Iraq's Ancient Past, Penn Museum.

Birth of SERUG, father of NAHOR.

Earth climate cools, putting once flourishing settlements in the higher latitudes under great stress, such as in the Orkney islands.

Birth of NAHOR, ABRAM's grandfather.

Ur is conquered by the Semitic-speaking kings of Agade/Akkad (the site of Akkad city has never been found).

There is evidence of a huge meteor strike devastating southern 'Iraq'/Mesopotamia at this date according to tree-ring dating (dendrochronology) which would have led to the breakdown of these kingdoms (other date estimates vary between c.2400-2100 BCE).
Dead Sea level now drops by about 100 metres.

The city of Troy (level IIg) is utterly devastated by fire as well as the region to Tell Leilan (possibly by a meteor shower).

SARGON I (2371-2316) of Akkad (in Semitic), Agade (in Sumerian), conquers Sumer (Shinar/שִׁנְעָר/Šin`ar), and makes his daughter *EN-HEDU-ANA high priestess/consort of the moon god Nanna (full moon) at Ur (meaning 'the abode of Nanna'; he is also known as En-zu 'lord of wisdom' regarding astrology).

Sumerian was given to them by these semitic Akkadians as a geographic reference, but they referred to themselves as 'the black-headed people' (phonetically: uŋ saŋ giga).

Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain in Britain begins to be built.

post-Akkadian cylinder seal from this period, often called the 'seal of temptation' because it has been seen as depicting Adam and Eve on either side of the Tree with serpents in the background, is more likely that of a god (shown by his horned headdress) receiving a worshipper at the tree of fertility.

LUGAL-ZAGESI (originally of Umma), makes Uruk his new capital after conquering all Sumer.

NARAM-SIN (grandson of SARGON) conquers the area from Elam (south-west Iran) to Syria, including the city of Ebla.

RIMUSH of Akkad conquers Elam and Marhashi (central Iran).

Birth of TERAH, ABRAM's father.

East Africa, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Gulf of Oman, Aegean, and Indus regions experience an abrupt climatic change.

A period of low Nile floods begins that includes periodic severe famines, until c.1950BCE.
(Analysis and carbon dating of ancient sediments from Lake Tana in Ethiopia – the source of the Blue Nile – found that around 4,200 years ago, lake levels dropped considerably, indicating massive water shortages and drought may have ultimately brought an end to Egypt’s first major dynastic civilization, the collapse of the Old Kingdom.

Birth of ABRAM in Ur (אוּר/Urim/Tell el-Muqayyar, today north of the Tallil military air base in Iraq), the land of their 'kindred' (Gen.11:28), capital and port of Sumer (river sediment has since pushed the coastline far south), whose patron deity is the Sumerian moon god Nanna (the name of the city is derived from the god's name, URIM).
Akkadian empire under SHU-TURUL collapses.

Climatic changes hasten the end of Egypt's Old Kingdom.

King UR-NAMMU, founder of Ur's 3rd Dynasty, builds the great Ziggurat Temple.
(He uses column, arch, vault, and dome forms of architecture, with every wall being an imperceptible convex to create an illusion of strength; the so-called entasis principle).

UR-NAMMU dies, his son SHULGI rules the Sumerian empire (2094-2047) and extends it to all Assyria.

Akkadian-speaker ABRAM enters Canaan at the age of 75, from Haran (חָרָן/Harran) where his father died, and he worships God (יהוה) at the local open-air sanctuary in Shechem (Gen.12).

ABRAM moves to Egypt because of famine and lies about his wife SARAI to the Tenth Dynasty pharaoh, ruler of northern Egypt.

MELCHI-ZEDEK, Amorite city-king of Salem and priest of God Most High (כהן לאל עליון), supplies food and drink to the troops of ABRAM and his Amorite Allies, after their military action to free LOT and rescue the captives taken from the cities of the plain of Siddim (south of the Dead/Salt Sea).
ABRAM gives the city-king of Salem 10% of his plunder of the Eastern Alliance armies (Gen.14:18-20).

Abram adopts the king of Salem's terms for God, El Elyon (אֵל עֶלְיֹון), in rebuking the city-king of Sodom; terms also found in the Ugaritic Poems on clay tablets excavated at Ras Shamra in Lebanon. This language of the Amorites of Canaan/Palestine (known to us as Canaanite) eventually becomes the language of the family of Abram and directly ancestral to the Hebrew of our Bible.

promises ABRAM innumerable descendants. Although it seems physically impossible, ABRAM believes/trusts God beyond his own understanding and he is therefore considered righteous before God (Gen.15:6).

enters into a formal covenant with ABRAM concerning the Land of Palestine according to the custom of the time (Gen.15:8-21). (See: Israel's Right to Canaan/Palestine).

Please note right side-bar ⇒

ISHMAEL is born to ABRAM and HAGAR (Gen.16); from whom all the Arab tribes are descended through Ishmael's twelve clans (Gen.17:30).

the Hebrew of our Bible is derived from the Canaanite language which Israel's Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, learned in Canaan, in addition to Ancient Egyptian, the Bible's Hebrew also shows the influence of the (Assyro-Babylonian) Akkadian language in both its vocabulatory and grammatical structure.
Akkadian was the primary diplomatic language throughout the Middle East in this time. For instance, even later the letters which the Canaanite Princes of the fourteenth century BC/BCE wrote to the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaton in his new capital at Tel-el-Amarna were written in Akkadian.
          The following is a sample of associated terms –

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