I checked with a devout friend of mine about the generational inconsistency. He's studied the Bible for decades.

His first response was that I must have counted wrong, but his final position was that because the genealogies have no cosmic significance, it might well be an error.

He didn't think that sort of triviality cast doubt on anything else.

As for the part about not tasting death, he correctly observed that there were "various interpretations" along the lines I listed originally. The uncertainty and confusion didn't bother him, because it was a prophetic statement that could not be analyzed literally. It might have something to do with some kind if time relativity between the material and heavenly worlds. In Eternity, there is no time as we know it.

I might add that my friend is neither a fundamentalist nor a creationist.