Chapter 15: Difficult Questions and a Clear Way to Teach the Chart
Study activity, printable worksheet, explained answers, and source references for your chapter.
Printed chapter: pages 94-96. Complete connected chart: pages 98–145. These page references match the reviewed manuscript.
Listen to Chapter 15 · View Chapter 15 on the chart · Download the two-page worksheet
Prepare your own checked explanation
Choose one chart detail. Write 60-100 words giving its location, original claim, supporting passage or source, and one useful qualification. Read it aloud to someone unfamiliar with the chart. Revise any sentence that leaves the person unable to tell what a number means or where a correction comes from.
Find the detail on the chart, identify what each number measures, and record the source used for your explanation.
Practice questions and explained answers
Try the worksheet first. Tap a question to reveal its explanation.
1. Is 4004 BC explicitly written in Genesis 1:1?
No. It belongs to the chronology Adams adopts. Genesis 1:1 does not supply that BC coordinate.
2. Does reporting a 930-year lifespan supply a verified medical mechanism?
No. Reporting the biblical number and explaining its biological mechanism are different tasks. The chapter does not offer an established medical explanation for such longevity.
3. What does an overlap establish about a meeting?
Only the coexistence of lifetimes within the stated chronology. It does not document a conversation, meeting, or transfer of information.
4. What is known and inferred about Cain’s wife?
Genesis names her relationship as Cain’s wife but does not name her. Her place within the wider descendants of the first family is an inference from the narrative, not a named identification in the verse.
5. Does Genesis 9:25 establish a modern hierarchy of skin colors?
No. It names Canaan; it does not describe a skin-color change or authorize treating a modern racial population as inferior.
6. How many elapsed years separate the starts of 2 BC and AD 3?
Four: 2 BC to 1 BC, to AD 1, to AD 2, to AD 3. Ordinary historical BC/AD numbering has no year zero.
Complete connected chart
Download all four parts and print in order, at actual size (100%). These contain one complete set of 48 numbered chart tiles, divided into four downloads. Follow the tile labels to connect the chart. Use the chapter enlargements for small lettering.
- Chart part 1 of 4 — tiles 1–12
- Chart part 2 of 4 — tiles 13–24
- Chart part 3 of 4 — tiles 25–36
- Chart part 4 of 4 — tiles 37–48
Sources to consult
These are the chapter’s source references, not quotations from those works. Use the named title, institution, record number, or passage to locate the source. Some external sources may have access restrictions.
- James Ussher, Annales veteris testamenti (1650), followed by The Annals of the World, English edition (London: E. Tyler for F. Crook and G. Bedell, 1658). Compare University of Oxford, History of Science Museum, Biblical Criticism catalogue entry 81, on Ussher’s chronological work and the two publication dates. Eton College Collections, B35331, notes the second Latin volume published in 1654.
- Genesis 5:3-32, KJV, read on Bible Gateway and Bible.com.
- Genesis 4:17-26, KJV, especially verses 17-18, compared with Genesis 5:4, 18, and 25.
- Genesis 7:6, 11-12, 19-24, KJV; read with Genesis 8.
- Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38, KJV, read on Bible Gateway.
- First Chronicles 3:10-12, KJV, compared with Matthew 1:8. Joram, Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah, and Azariah appear in the Chronicles sequence; the corresponding Matthew passage moves from Joram to Ozias.
- Genesis 1:1 and 1:26-28; Genesis 9:18-27, especially 9:25, KJV, read on Bible Gateway.
- Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, English translation of the Septuagint (London: Samuel Bagster & Sons, 1851), Genesis 5:3-5, hosted by Christian Classics Ethereal Library, compared directly with Genesis 5:3-5 KJV. Brenton gives Adam 230 years before Seth’s birth and 700 afterward; the KJV gives 130 and 800. Both total 930.
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Fred Espenak, “Year Dating Conventions” and “Calendar Dates”; compare U.S. Naval Observatory, “The 21st Century and the 3rd Millennium.” These explain historical numbering without zero, astronomical numbering with zero, and BC/BCE and AD/CE correspondence.
Use the printed chapter for its selected enlargements and the qualifications around each explanation. No account or personal information is required on this resource page. Downloaded files can be kept for offline study.