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

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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?


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.