Abram and His Times

Abram is one of the most important biblical personalities of the early Old Testament era. In spite of this importance, however, there is only limited plausible information about the chronology of his life. One of the purposes of this study is to develop a quantitative approach to the adventures and chronology of Abram’s life. As a starting point, one might try to connect the chronology of Abram’s life to datable events that occurred before or after the time of Abram. One starting point for this approach involves the date of Noah’s flood, and this date is thought to have been about 2035 B.C. More extreme and widespread climate disruptions, including especially flooding, may be associated with Noah’s flood than with any other historical weather event.

Starting from the date of Noah’s flood, various Bible-related chronological information can be employed to estimate the date of Abram’s birth and later events in his life. Thus, the Bible in the book Genesis refers to three different famines associated with three eruptions of the volcanic island of Thera in the lives of Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, respectively. Another chronologically significant geophysical event associated with Abram involved the destruction of the wicked “cities of the plain” including Sodom and its companion cities in about 1705 B.C. This destruction was initiated by the impact of an asteroid in the vicinity of the Dead Sea.

Many other asteroid impacts have occurred in the history of the earth besides the one in Abram’s lifetime. Thus, the Chicxulub impact in the Yucatan about 66 million years ago destroyed three quarters of plant and animal species including the dinosaurs. The Younger Dryas impact of about 12,900 years ago destroyed at least 35 mammal genera in North America. Smaller destructive impacts have occurred as recently as the Chelyabinsk event of 15 February 2013. A New Testament impact of particular biblical interest caused the temporary blinding of Saul (Paul) as he travelled on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus in the 30s A.D. Following that incident, Paul became one of the greatest early advocates for the new religion of Christianity.