When was Shem born?

I'm going to take issue here and say that there is an orderly timeline.
as per abraham -im not sure why you have a problem [side issue: i thought he was born 1948 -how do you get 1949?]
Heres the timeline;
The verses state:
abraham born to Terach[abes dad] in his 70th year
they travel to Charan
Terach dies age 205 [so Abraham ]
Abraham leaves for Canaan at age 75 [and Terach was 75+70]
the answer is that abraham left charan and his live father when abraham was 75 and his father 145; his father died 60 years later at 205 years and abraham was 135. the only problem is the order of the verses thats all - why did the verses order terachs death before abraham journey? -this is not a big deal -we can answer - because terach is insignificant and the Torah does not want to focus on him -so finish his whole story and tell his lifes end and on to our main character without a break -abraham. i read a commentary that said the following - abraham was supposed to be a great man, devout etc -how could he leave charan and leave his old dad behind? to hide this, the torah placed the verse with the death first, to cover abrahams leaving his dad, but you all noticed it - so the answer is he did leave him before his death.
Im jewish - so the whole ACTS thing is not an argument -i dont accept the NT so lets disregard it as folly and not a source for discussion. That takes care of the rest of the problems here regarding 430 vs 450. whats next?

Strange thing Rei - ianswered sun afternoon but my post never appeared -weird!so ill try to rehash a bit what i said, but a bit shorter:
First, in my bible [Torah] in the Hebrew theres a critical difference for the verses you quoted in english above - namely the word THEN...in ". Then the LORD told Abram"..its not there! just The Lord told etc so theres no order here.Any which way i can say at least in jewish view as found often in the talmud - we do hold that although at times there is chronolgy in the torah, in general the order of the verses are not chronological. This is part of the jewish tradition as brought down in th eoral law. You can take it any way you like.Now back to the original 'problem' of shems birth year - again - i dont see a problem:
Shem was born in 1558 and died in 2158. As for your problem with th e verses above in 5/3 ans 11/10 - not a problem either. The verse in 11/10 actually sheds light on Shem's birth, and here's how.
Shem was 100 two years after the flood, hence he was 98 at the flood
Noah was 600 at the flood so Noah had Shem when he was 502, which was th eyear 1558.as for the verse in 5/32 saying Noach had shem, cham and yefet when he was 500 - no problem -remeber that Yefet is the oldest ["his elder brother Yefet"] ..so this verse only really says that Noach began having kids at age 500 and he had his elder which is yefet. iy doesnt say how muc after yefet he had shem and cham - and so we see from 11/10 that it was 2 years later, in 502 that noah had shem. Problem solved i think?im sure youll have some problem, so have patience bc this work week is hectic and i dont think il have time to enjoy your reply till next weekend.as for the 1948 vs 1949 thing -i dont know how you got your nunbers. heres how i see it:Person: Life Span: Birth-Death:Adam 930 1-930
Seth 912 130-1042
Enosh 905 235-1140
Kenan 910 325-1235
Mahalalel 895 395-1290Yered 962 460-1422
Enoch 365 622-987
Metushelach 969 687-1656
Lemech 777 874-1651
Noah 950 1056-2006Shem 600 1558-2158
Arpachshad 438 1658-2096
Shelah 433 1693-2126
Ever 464 1723-2187
Peleg 239 1757-1996Reu 239 1787-2026
Serug 230 1819-2049
Nachor 148 1849-1957
Terach 205 1878-2083
Avraham 175 1948-2123
Isaac 180 2048-2228
Jacob 147 2108-2255from: Artsrcoll Tanach
I hope there were no typos....
Be well... added spaces between apparent paragraphs to make reading easier, also divided the table up a bit for the same reason - The Queen[This message has been edited by AdminAsgara, 11-03-2003]

im curious haha -show me how pharoah could lead the jews out if the verse order isntl always chronolgical......actaally you are right in asking me about it- i dont know enough talmudical details to tell you how they figure out whether its chronological or not....and i suspect even there there are differences of opinion..but i think my basic statment is right....
i think that you will find that even if the ORDER OF VERSES is not necessarily always chronological [who said that this was always the main purpose in the ordering sequence?] you will not be able to do what you want because there will be limitations by the content of the verses. but enough here show me!now you said:
"So if I were to say "At age 20 I had three children", you would interpret this as meaning that I had my first child at age 20? That seems to be quite a strange way of reading, from my perspective"once again i think this is a translation issue [haha learn Hebrew and learn torah/bible for real! kidding! but it is totally different in hebrew folks....much more exact....no wonder there are so many questions...translation is a killer in bible studies!]
first - the verse does NOT say "at age 500 noah had three kids" - that would indeed imply as youve said. it said "and noah was 500 years old [stop - a break as seen by an 'etnachata' -a masoretic note then] and noah had shem cham and yafet. so, first idea- theyre 2 separate statments in one verse. so noah became 500..and then he began having kids....this explains why the verse insists on repeating "and noah" twice -why repeat? -just say "and noah was 500 and had 3 kids"...why repeat "and noah"...because thyere separate [jewish commentators do learn however the connection between 500 and having kids that caused these 2 ideas to be placed in one verse at all][ps all this is not form jewish commentators so dont blame them when you answer me - my ideas here]
but i dont think youll go for that, though that is implied in the hebrew so here is a better proof. here the verb 'to give birth' used is hebrew 'vayoled' -ie and noah was 500 yrs old and noach 'vayoled' shem, cham, and yafet. compare this to other verses where ppl give birth to see if this implies one kid at a time or all kids - see for example right before that 5/7 -at the end "and he gave birth to boys anf girls -here "vayoled" is used - obviously he didnt have them all at once or in one year...same in verse 11 and 16 and 19. and see the genealogies in ch 10, eg 10/26 - "and yoktan gave birth [here a similar 'yalad'] to almodad and shalef and chatzarmavet and yarach and hadoram and uzal and dikla and oval and avimael and sheva -did he have all 10 at once also ? my point -you cant prove a thing from an english mistranslation.... btw this was all my idea- i dont know hebrew biblical grammar to tell you what the actuall tense is ie present perfect etc... but i think my proof is valid.
Please elaborate on the construction and exodus problems you have - btw i donthave a biblical criticism nor christian exegetical background so im mising a lot of 'problems' you might refer too..but am open to all ideas....