Biblical geekery (patriarchs' ages)

As I pointed out previously, when you do the maths, Jacob was 77 when when ran away. BUT the patriarchs lived a really long time, so maybe they didn't age as quickly?

This affects how I draw them. Jacob and Abraham were more or less ages with each other when they left home, yet we think of - and draw - Jacob as a young man and Abraham as an old man. Which makes no sense.

So, I made a graph.

I set three points:

• I made 17 the same on both, because I can't imagine Jacob sending his treasured son 50 miles on his own when he was a little kid.
• I made Sarah's age at the birth of Isaac the equivalent of 60. This made her definitely too old to have a baby. I didn't want to make her much younger, as Abraham also doubted that he could father a child.
• The oldest to die were Isaac and Abraham - and they were a lot older than the others. So I set the upper limit at 120, the oldest age that people live in modern times.

Then I made a curve, and drew lines.

Grey shaded bit = 'old' but not necessarily very old.

What I like about this is that all the age equivalents (except the ones that are meant to be laughable) seem sensible. People die at sensible ages. Jacob gets married late, but not ridiculously old (George Clooney, not Hugh Hefner 😀).

Now I'm going back over my other patriarchs PowerPoints to make greyness of hair a bit more consistent - though of course people vary widely.

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Here's a list if you prefer. Equivalents in brackets.

Joe sold - 17 (17)
Esau married  - 40 (34)
Isaac married - 40 (34)

Isaac when J&E born - 60 (46)
Sarah leaves - 65 (48)

Abraham leaves - 75 (53)
Jacob runs away - 77 (54)
Jacob gets married - 84 (57)
Abraham has Ishmael - 86 (58)

Sarah has Isaac - 90 (60)
Jacob has Joseph - 91 (61)
Abraham has Isaac - 100 (65)
Jacob when Joe sold - 108 (68)
Joe dies - 110 (69)

Sarah dies - 127 (77)
Jacob goes to Egypt - 130 (78)

Isaac blind - 137 (82)
Jacob dies - 147 (88)

Abraham dies - 175 (113)
Isaac dies - 180 (120)