Does base-10 numbering in Genesis 4:24 argue against the Wiseman hypothesis?

Question

This question is a bit esoteric. Looking at numbers in the Bible I noticed this story about one of Cain's decedents:

And Lamech said to his wives,
“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
O wives of Lamech, give ear to my speech.
I have slain a man for wounding me,
And a lad for bruising me.

If Cain is avenged sevenfold,
Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”

—Genesis 4:23-24 (NJPS)

Like graded numerical parallelism, the idea of increasing something exponentially is a poetic device. It's a form of hyperbole. But notice that Lamech isn't using a sexagesimal (which would probably produce exaggerated claims of 17- or 67- or 427-fold vengeance), but a decimal numbering system. Since numbers written in cuneiform use a modified base-60 system, does this passage argue against the tablet theory?

Answer 1

Although it's an interesting argument, I would say no.

For one thing, this supposed tablet being pre-Babel, all bets are off as to what language and number system it would have been written in. It could have been Mesopotamian, but I do not see why it has to be.

More importantly, however, even assuming the hypothetical tablet was not originally in Hebrew, we can't be certain what kind of translation methodology Moses would have adopted. Perhaps the seventy-seven is not a word-for-word rendering of what Lamech said, but an adaptation by Moses to help his Hebrew readers understand the text.

Unless you could establish both that the original tablet would have featured a sexagesimal and that the only translation methodology of the day was word-for-word, I don't think you have a decisive argument - though it may cast doubts.

Answer 2

Once the passage is recognized to not be literal, but a riddle, then the rules of riddle apply:

The expansion is based on the meanings in sensus plenior.

• Cain - possessor, spear
• Spear - sins of the church
• Lamech - powerful (Christ come in power)
• seven - fullness
• ten - dual-natured man (Christ)
• seventy - 7 * 10
• seventy times seven - seven in heaven and on earth, dual-natured man

"If the possessor of the sins of the church is punished fully, truly when he comes in power he will avenge himself as the dual-natured man fully in heaven and on earth."

Since the numbers lose any numeric value as metaphors, they are not base-10 numbering. As such they have no bearing on the Wiseman hypothesis. The question presumes that Genesis is merely a product of culture (cuneiform) and that God is incapable of preserving his types and shadows throughout his word.

Wiseman's hypothesis deals with the meaning of the toledoth. It surmises that it is a signature line transposed from tablets onto papyrus, such that we have evidence that Genesis was written by eyewitnesses. The number system used has nothing to do with the hypothesis.