@KenS and to all you other creationists out there.
Do you know what
anachronism mean?
It mean anything that people (authors) write about a time, eg story or history, that set in another time, and talk of objects that don’t exist in that time.
Look it up in a dictionary or you can wiki or google “anachronism”.
For instance, Genesis was most likely written by some unknown authors of 7th to 6th centuries BCE, which is the early Iron Age (1050 to 500 BCE, while late Iron Age is from 499 to 30 BCE, when Egypt fell to Octavian, better known as Augustus Caesar).
About 2/3 of Genesis concerned with the 3 most important patriarchs of Israel - hence, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
This plus the part of Noah would be set in the Bronze Age, with Noah supposedly living in the 3rd millennium BCE, with the Flood supposedly occurring around 2340 BCE. While the 3 patriarchs living in the 1st half of the 2nd millennium BCE, so about 1950 to 1600 BCE.
All these dates are approximate dates based on the times given in Genesis, Exodus 12:40-41 (430 years, from exodus to Abraham’s covenant, Genesis 15) and 1 Kings 6:1 (the time from Solomon’s 4th year reign to Moses leading his people out of Egypt is 480 years). The time between Adam to Flood is 1656 years (Genesis 5), and time between Flood to Abraham’s birth is only 292 years (Genesis 11).
In history, the Bronze Age started around 3100/3050 BCE and ended around 1050 BCE in both Egypt and Sumer, and it is called Bronze Age, because people stopped using stone tools in the Near East, by making tools and weapon out of bronze, but before iron tools were made.
While iron tools and weapons were more commonly found from 1050 BCE and onward to the 1st century BCE.
Are you with me so far, KenS and co?
According to Genesis 4, Tubal-Cain, a descendant or Adam, from the Cain line was 7th generation, so Tubal-Cain was most likely Enoch’s contemporary, since Enoch too was 7th generation. So both Enoch and Tubal-Cain lived before the Flood.
Now here comes the ANACHRONISM part.
According Genesis 4:22, we have Tubal-Cain supposedly making tools out of bronze and iron:
“Genesis 4:22” said:
22 Zillah bore Tubal-cain, who made all kinds of bronze and iron tools. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.
How could Tubal-Cain make tools out of iron, when there are no evidences that of iron making in the 3rd millennium BCE?
Other references to iron tools or weapons are found in other books, supposed set in the from mid- to 2nd half of the 2nd millennium BCE, a time that Moses supposedly lived. Other examples, Leviticus 26:19; Numbers 31:22, 35:16; and there are many references in Deuteronomy, but the most important one is Deuteronomy 4:20
“Deuteronomy 4:20” said:
20 But the L ORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron-smelter, out of Egypt, to become a people of his very own possession, as you are now.
There were no furnace or smelter of iron in Egypt in the 2nd millennium BCE.
There other examples of iron be used in book of Joshua too. But I think you should get my points by now.
All these references to iron being made or used from Genesis to Joshua, are all anachronistic.
It is clear to anyone with any knowledge of history, but more importantly knowledge of archaeology, that iron tools were not made in the 3rd millennium BCE, and much of the 2nd millennium BCE. We know this, because absence of iron being used during the Bronze Age.
So apparently the person or people who wrote Genesis to Numbers were living when iron were commonly used. Traditions say that Moses wrote these books, but with these anachronistic references to iron, it seemed highly unlikely, especially when we have no literary evidences that any of these books existed in the 2nd millennium BCE.
So the person or people who wrote Genesis or Exodus, didn’t know much history or archaeology of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE, otherwise they wouldn’t make mistakes.
