Inquiry:
How old was Terah when he died? Was he 146 (Genesis 11:26; 12:4) or was he 205 (Genesis 11:32)? Is there a contradiction?
Response:
Genesis 11:32 plainly says that Terah was 205 when he died.
The questioner says that Genesis 11:26 and 12:4 combine to say he was 146 when he died.
Genesis 11:26 simply says that he was 70 years old when he began to have children. In Genesis 12:4 it says that Abram left Haran with Lot at the age of 75. The text says nothing about Terah at all.
So where do the 146 years come in, since these two texts don’t contradict? Allow me to add Acts 7:4 to the complaint. There it says Abram left Haran after his father died. Thus, if Terah was 70 when Abram was born and his son was 75 when he left Haren (after Terah’s death), then he was 145 (not 146) when he died.
The supposed contradiction is based in the false assumption that Abraham was his firstborn. No text says this is so, and the numbers say otherwise as well.
There is no contradiction.
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