 of Cainan, which book comes close to solving all the alleged numerical discrepancies in the OT, at least as I see it. However, the explanation that follows is original with me if anyone else has proposed it, I am unaware. Consider the exact wording of Genesis 11:12-13. Arphaxad lived thirty-five years and begot Salah; after he begot Salah, Arphaxad lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters. The verb begot requires that Salah be a blood descendant of Arphaxad, not adopted. He could be a grandson, the son of a son of Arphaxad, or even a great-grandson, etc., except that in this case the time frame only has room for one intervening generation. The plain meaning of the formula in the Text, W lived X years and begot Y; after W begot Y he lived Z years, is that W was X years old when Y was born, is it not and Y was Z years old when W died? It follows that this formula destroys the accordion gambit. There were precisely 130 years between Adam and Seth, 105 between Seth and Enosh, 90 between Enosh and Cainan1, etc., etc. To argue that the years were based on lunar months will not save the gambit. I take the clear meaning of the Hebrew Text to be that Arphaxad was 35 years old when Salah was born, whatever we may decide to do about Cainan. Let us try to imagine the situation in the years immediately following the Flood. After the Flood the name of the game was to replenish the earth. Indeed, the divine command was: Be fruitful and multiply Gen. 9:1. So, whom could Noahs grandsons marry? Obviously their cousins, Noahs granddaughters. There would be an urgency to reproducethus, the girls would be married off at puberty, and the boys would not be wasting around either. The women would be giving birth as often as they possibly could. Really, the absolute top priority would be to increase the number of people. Arphaxad was born two years after the flood, but his wife could have been born a year or two earlier. The Sacred Text is clear to the effect that only eight souls entered the ark, but some of the women could have conceived during the Flood, since they were in the ark for a full year. Thus, Arphaxad could have fathered Cainan when he was 1718. Similarly, Cainan could have fathered Salah when he was 1718. In this way Arphaxad could be said to have begotten Salah when he was 35. Cainan could have died early or been passed over in Genesis because the time span did not constitute a generation, or both. Or, as things got back to normal, culturally speaking, the haste with which Arphaxad and Cainan procreated might have been viewed as unseemly. The expedient of omitting Cainan would make the account more normal while preserving precision as to the elapsed time. But Luke would be correct in saying that Salah was of Cainan who was of Arphaxad. Salah was Arphaxads grandson. In any case, the Messianic line was passed on by Salah. Without Lukes record I, for one, would never have stopped to consider what must have happened immediately following the Floodthe absolute priority must have been to increase the number of people. of Arphaxad, of Shem, of Noah, of Lamech, 