The biblical and Sumerian accounts of the Deluge are very similar (which occurred in year 600 of Noah or Ziusudra) and suppose a dating 3170 BCE according to the Septuagint. There was no dispute since the priests (Sadducees) no longer existed, as well as scrolls of the temple (except some of them which has been retrieved by Josephus thanks to emperor Titus in 70 CE). 90 CE), durations in Genesis 11:10-26 were also reduced by 100 years and were canonized by the rabbis (Pharisees). 160) durations in Genesis 5:3-31 were reduced by 100 years and were adopted by a part of the Jews, as Eupolemus and by the Samaritans, and afterward, at the Synod of Yabneh (c. According to the reconstruction of chronological data, Jewish corrections of the Hebrew text (preserved in the LXX) were performed in two steps: after the onset of the Book of Jubilees (c. Textual criticism now favours an anteriority of the Septuagint text Vorlage (H*) on the proto-Masoretic which comes from an overhaul of this Vorlage, including chronological data from the text of Genesis. The accuracy of the transmission of the text can be checked owing to the accuracy of its chronology and through the comparison between the sum of the intermediate values and the total value indicated in the text.

This kind of study showed that the most stable texts surveyed are those containing ritual instructions, which have led, for example, to the exact transmission of the Torah in the late Second Temple period.

Thus, ancient texts, that are preserved in more than one copy, have been compared to determine how much variation occurs between manuscripts. The transmission of many historical and chronological data (reigns, lifetimes, long periods, etc.) as well as many proper names, is necessarily flawed, unless one believing in an (unlikely) scribes infallibility.

Bible exile timeline