Religion Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Biblical longevity
Name Age LXX
Methuselah 969 969
Jared 962 962
Noah 950 950
Adam 930 930
Seth 912 912
Kenan 910 910
Enos 905 905
Mahalalel 895 895
Lamech 777 753
Shem 600 600
Eber 464 404
Cainan 460
Arpachshad 438 465
Salah 433 466
Enoch 365 365
Peleg 239 339
Reu 239 339
Serug 230 330
Job 210? 210?
Terah 205 205
Isaac 180 180
Abraham 175 175
Nahor 148 304
Jacob 147 147
Esau 147? 147?
Ishmael 137 137
Levi 137 137
Amram 137 137
Kohath 133 133
Laban 130+ 130+
Deborah 130+ 130+
Sarah 127 127
Miriam 125+ 125+
Aaron 123 123
Rebecca 120+ 120+
Moses 120 120
Joseph 110 110
Joshua 110 110

According to the Torah, Kohath was one of the sons of Levi[1], and the patriarchal founder of the Kohathites, one of the four main divisions among the Levites in Biblical times; in some apocryphal texts such as the Testament of Levi, and the Book of Jubilees, Levi's wife, Kohath's mother, is named as Milkah, a daughter of Aram[2][3]. In the Testament of Levi, Kohath's birth, occurring when Levi was 35 years old, is accompanied by a vision of Kohath being on high in the midst of all the congregation; in the vision, Kohath's name is described as meaning beginning of majesty and instruction, and is portrayed as a prophecy of him being raised above his siblings[4], but according to biblical scholars, the meaning of Kohath's name is fairly unknown, although it may be related to an Aramaic word meaning obey[5].

In the Book of Exodus, Kohath is described as having four sons - Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel - with Amram marrying a woman named Jochebed, and becoming the biological father of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam[6]; despite some Greek and Latin manuscripts of the Septuagint version of the Torah stating that Jochebed was Kohath's cousin[7], the masoretic text states that she was Kohath's sister[8] - Amram's aunt - although Jochebed's relationship to Levi is not explicitly stated. The Book of Numbers states that during the lifetime of his grandson, Kohath ended up with 8,600 descendants

Advocates of Julius Wellhausen's documentary hypothesis believe the Torah was compiled in the fifth century BC from several independent, contradictory, hypothetical (nonextant) documents, including the Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomic, and Priestly sources and the book of generations. Advocates[who?] attribute Levi's genealogy to the "book of generations".[9] Scholars[who?] attribute Moses's birth narrative, which also mentions Amram and Jochebed, to the earlier "Elohist source". According to these scholars,[who?] the genealogy is an aetiological myth reflecting there being four different groups among the Levites, the Gershonites, Kohathites, Merarites, and Aaronids,[10] and Aaron, the eponymous ancestor of the Aaronids, could not consistently be portrayed as a brother to Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Their hypothetical reconstruction of the "Elohist source" mentions only that both parents were Levites (without identifying their names; Exodus 2:1-2). Some scholars[who?] suspect that the "Elohist source" accounts to Moses both matrilineal and patrilineal descent from Levites in order to magnify his religious credentials.[10]

According to the masoretic text, Kohath's family tree would be as follows:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Levi
 
 
 
(unnamed)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Gershon
 
Kohath
 
Merari
 
Jochebed
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Amram
 
Izhar
 
Hebron
 
Uzziel
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Miriam
 
Aaron
 
Moses
 
 
 

See also[]

Notes and citations[]

  1. Numbers 3:21
  2. Jubilees 34:20
  3. Testament of Levi 11
  4. Testament of Levi 3
  5. Cheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica
  6. Exodus 6:16-20
  7. Exodus 6:16-20, LXX
  8. New American Bible, footnote to Exodus 6:20
  9. Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote The Bible?.
  10. 10.0 10.1 Peake's Commentary on the Bible.
Wikipedia
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at Kohath. The list of authors can be seen in the page history.
Advertisement