The first number is the age at which the patriarch begot his successor, the second the remainder of his years, the third the total number of his years. As the table shows, the original text and its two versions differ greatly in fixing the number of years from Adam to the Flood. On a closer examination it will be found that the difference between the Hebrew text and the Septuagint is chiefly occasioned by the systematic addition of 100 years which the Septuagint has made to the age of six patriarchs at the birth of their successors. The Samaritan on the contrary has in the case of three patriarchs deducted 100 years. No reliable clue that we know of has as yet been found for deciding which of the computations is the original.
Presumption is on the side of the one in the Hebrew text being the oldest text of the three.
On the other hand, the Samaritan has the advantage that the lifetime of the three patriarchs Jared, Methusala, and Lamech has been shortened, so that there is a gradual decrease in the number of years of each patriarch from Adam to Noe. In the table of the ten Babylonian kings the length of their reign is calculated by means of sares. Berosus counts 120 sares. According to the first estimation of the sare, the total number of years for the ten kings would be 432,000, according to the second 2,220. The genealogical table is accepted as a record of the past and as possessing the ordinary certainty of history.