My YouTube “recommended” page is loaded with an eclectic blend of content, from the nerdy to the weird, with a lot of cooking videos, art how-to videos, and more documentaries about obscure things than you could ever imagine. That’s beside the point. Let’s not talk about it. Shouldnt’ve brought it up. Instead, I want to draw your attention to a video I stumbled across recently, from a page called “Magnify.”

The channel in question is devoted to posting short videos full of self-proclaimed “interesting details,” often with an emphasis on the etymology of words, the history of ancient cultures, and other “old” things like that. The idea of it is right up my alley, which is probably why the YouTube algorithm recommended it to me. But the video that caught my eye was a disappointment to say the least. Entitled “Ancient vs Modern Counting System” it sounded, at first, like it was going to be a quick history of the way numbers and math came about, like how the number “zero” is a fairly recent invention in modern arithmetic, etc.

Instead, what I got was a minute-long video full of more misconceptions and half-truths than I could shake a stick at…

There are so many inaccuracies in that video, I don’t even know where to begin. The person picks and chooses half-statements, completely ignoring the other halves of those statements, and applies them (inconsistently, I might add) to other half-baked cultural ideas, some of which have nothing to do with the era in which the Book of Genesis was written.

The basic gist of the video is that Seth (the third son of Adam and Eve) didn’t actually live to be 912 years old, but that “912” is just Moses using a “round” number, and that Seth’s actual age was 76, because if you take 912 and divide it by 12 you get 76. Why are we dividing that number by 12? He says it’s because 12 (and also 60 but that doesn’t matter) was considered a “round” number in the way we look at numbers like “10” and “100.” Somehow he jumps from that anecdotal observation to the specific number given by Moses and says “divide it!” and ends up with a number that seems like a reasonable age when a person might die (76 years old).

Again, where to begin…

First, he offers no reason to divide Seth’s age by 12. That was just a separate idea and is, at best, coincidentally related to Seth’s Age. Yes, 912 is cleanly divisible by 12, and yes, the divisible number is 76 but…so what?

Second, what proves too much proves nothing at all.

The same writer who said Seth died at the age of 912 (Genesis 5:8) also said Seth had a child, Enos, when he was 105 (Genesis 5:7). If we apply the “divide by 12” number consistently (and why wouldn’t you, since it’s the same author writing one sentence immediately after the next), then that would mean Seth fathered Enos when he was…8.5 years old! I would also point out that 105 is NOT a round number, nor is it divisible cleanly by 12, completely unraveling the entire premise of his video.

What bothers me most about the video is not that the man is incorrect (he clearly and provably is; even if you didn’t believe the Bible you can’t deny the man’s theory is inconsistently applied = bad data gives bad results), it’s in how casually and confidently wrong he is. He says the things he does as if they are understood facts. His video is slick, clever looking, easy to follow, and yet entirely 1000% factually wrong.

That’s scary to me.

I don’t guess I have a point to any of this; I just wanted you to see it and be scared with me at how effortlessly people can be wrong (and to a very wide audience). Videos like this illustrate how much untruth you can get away with just by having a ton of confidence and a slick presentation. Beware false teachers, and don’t take just anyone’s word at face value.

~Matthew