Fun with Numbers

Yosef was in Mitzraim for 22 years. In this time period, Yehuda marries a girl named "bat shua." He has 3 children. The second one grows up and marries a girl named Tamar. After this a "long time" passes. Then Yehudah and Tamar have children. One of those children, Peretz, grows up and has children of his own. If we were to assume that pregnancy takes 9 months, that events happen immediately, that a "long time" is only 9 months or less, that Peretz's children were twins, and that people can have kids at the age of 10, this sequence of events would still take over 22 years. But, of course, those assumptions are ludicrous. The Talmud was sensitive to this point and suggests that indeed Yehudah's family gave birth at very young ages. Ibn Ezra suggests that the chapter 38 of genesis happened before chapter 37 [a tough sell in light of 38:1, and it doesn't necessarily solve the problem even if it's so]. But, these answers seem week. Of course, multiple authorship divides these stories in to different pieces so there's no problem. Cassuto has an interesting suggestion here: maybe Peretz'a sons were born in M'tzraim. It's a tough sell in light of all the explicit verses that say otherwise, but Cassuto has some fascinating argument to support himself, like, for example, the peculiar language of Gen 46:12 which differs from the rest of Gen 46. He argues that perhaps Peretz's sons, although born in Egypt, are included in the count to take the place of Er and Onan. An interesting theory, but contradicted by many verses.

Name Games

The 10 generations from Adam to Noach have almost exactly the same names as the 7 generations from Kayin to Lemech. Kain becomes kainan, chanoch becomes chanoch, Irud becomes yered, M'chuyael becomes Mahalalel, m'sushael becomes m'sushelach and Lemech becomes Lemech. [Genesis 4:17-18 & 5:1-31] Even the names Adam and Enosh are related, as Enosh is aramaic for Adam. This similarity of names can be easily understood if one sees these various passages as variant version of the same story, but if these are really two variant stories, how likely is it that two sets of 7 people coincidently have the same names !?

Assuming multiple authorship also explains another problem. It is quite odd that mankind has always been named after Enosh. Why did he, specificly, merit to have mankind named after him. If we view Enosh as a variant version of the name Adam, this actual makes a lot of sense.

And yet, another mystery solved. The language of Genesis 5:1-28 is distinctly P in style and diction. Yet suddenly, in verse 29 there is a very strong shift from the style of P to J. This shift occurs exactly with the birth of Noach, the very place where the genealogy of J [gen. 4:17-18] left off.

Is it possible that Rashi was sensitive to this problem? Rashi comments that Lemech's daughter married Noach, the daughter of the other Lemech. Perhaps, though I concede this is a stretch, Rashi is somewhat based off of the similarity in the two genealogies.