Samaritan Chronology of Antediluvian Patriarchs in Genesis 5 and Prime Numbers (original) (raw)

The chronogenealogy of antediluvian patriarchs, as given by the Samaritan Pentateuch, is almost identical to one where all dates of birth and death of the patriarchs are prime numbers, provided the 7 years in Eden of Adam and Eve are taken into account. Such combination can not occur by chance and the chronology with prime numbers should be assumed as the progenitor one. Later a different more sophisticated symbolic meaning was assigned to prime numbers and some rounding and a copyist error produced the Samaritan chronology. This study also proves that the chronology of the Masoretic text was developed from the Samaritan one and not viceversa.