As nearly everyone is aware, the Earth is four billion years old, the ancestors of human beings split off from the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees millions of years ago, and anatomically modern humans date back to approximately 40,000 years ago.
However, modern science is a recent development in human history, and the political freedom which allowed religious orthodoxy to be questioned is also of a recent date. As well, religion is quite properly important in the lives of many, as it is the basis on which many people have learned the basic ethical values such as respect for the rights of others, and compassion and generosity.
Among Protestants, the most well known calculation of the date of Creation from the information in the Bible was that of Archbishop James Ussher, which placed Creation in the year 4004 B.C., Dr. John Lightfoot refined that to 9 AM on October 23rd of 4004 B.C. (by the Julian Calendar).
There are, however, a number of other calculations of the date of Creation.
What is the information that was used to arrive at these results?
Genesis opens (Genesis 1:1-5):
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
From this, if we are to take a literalistic approach, the world was created at sunset, Jerusalem time, at the beginning of Sunday by the Jewish calendar - or on Saturday by the modern civil calendar.
Adam was created on the sixth day.
Then we have the fifth chapter of Genesis, which lists the descendants of Adam, and the ages of their parents at their births, thus, the account of Adam proceeds (Genesis 5:3-5):
And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness after his image; and called his name Seth:
And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:
And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.
This account gives the spans:
Masoretic Septuagint
Adam 130 800 930 230 700 930
Seth 105 807 912 205 707 912
Enos 90 815 905 190 715 905
Cainan 70 840 910 170 740 910
Mahaleel 65 830 895 165 730 895
Jared 162 800 962 162 800 962
Enoch 65 300 365 165 200 365
Methuselah 187 782 969 167 802 969
Lamech 182 595 777 188 585 753
Noah 500 500
Shem, Ham, Japeth
If Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born, this does not mean that Seth was born on Adam's 130th birthday. So there would be an uncertainty of at least a year for each generation. As well, that the figures for Enos, Cainan and Mahaleel may have been rounded to the nearest five years is a possibility that can be considered without rejecting the authority of Scripture.
Also, while the Septuagint is generally considered a poor translation of Scripture, and the authority of the Masoretic text is now accepted by Christians, it might be noted that the ages at which the patriarchs had their first child are more consistent in the Septuagint. This particularly helps the theory that the "years" in these geneaologies should actually be lunar months to yield plausible ages.
But by adding the years, at least a nominal date can be obtained for the births and deaths recorded in this list:
Masoretic Septuagint
Adam 130 800 930 1 931 230 700 930 1 931
Seth 105 807 912 131 1043 205 707 912 231 1143
Enos 90 815 905 236 1141 190 715 905 436 1341
Cainan 70 840 910 326 1236 170 740 910 626 1536
Mahaleel 65 830 895 396 1291 165 730 895 796 1691
Jared 162 800 962 461 1423 162 800 962 961 1923
Enoch 65 300 365 623 988 165 200 365 1123 1488
Methuselah 187 782 969 688 1657 167 802 969 1288 2257
Lamech 182 595 777 875 1652 188 585 753 1455 2232
Noah 500 1057 500 1643
Shem, Ham, Japeth 1557 2143
We are told that the flood happened when Noah was 600 years old, 100 years after his three sons were born, in Genesis 7:11:
In the six hundredeth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of that month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and all the windows of heaven were opened.
Note that this is the same year as that of Methuselah's death.
The date of Noah's death was given in Genesis 9:28-29:
And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.
And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.
These years are the same in the Septuagint.
Genesis 11:10-32 give another series of generations for the descendants of Shem, beginning:
These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:
And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
Assuming that Shem was actually a hundred and two years old when Arphaxad was born, everything else is consistent (this issue is present in the same way in the Septuagint), and we can continue the table above:
Masoretic Septuagint
Noah 500 450 950 1057 2007 500 450 950 1643 2593
Shem 102 500 1557 2159 102 500 2143 2745
Arphaxad 35 403 1659 135 400 2245
Cainan 130 330 2380
Salah 30 403 1694 130 330 2510
Eber 34 430 1724 134 270 2640
Peleg 30 209 1758 130 209 2774
Reu 32 207 1788 132 207 2904
Serug 30 200 1820 130 200 3036
Nahor 29 119 1850 179 125 3166
Terah 70 1879 70 3345
Abram, Nahor, Haran 1949 3415
Then, the Bible recounts subsequent events:
In Genesis 12:4, it is noted that Abram departed from a city called Haran when he was 75 years old.
In Genesis 21:5, it is noted that Abraham (as he is now called) was 100 years old when Isaac was born.
In Genesis 25:26, it is noted that Isaac was 60 years old when Esau and Jacob were born.
Genesis 47:8-9 indicates that Jacob was 130 years old when he arrived in Egypt.
Exodus 12:40-41 notes that the Jews spent 430 years in Egypt until the Exodus.
And then in I Kings 6:1 it is noted that in the 480th year after the Exodus, in the fourth year of the reign of King Solomon, construction began on the Temple.
Thus, we have:
Abram 100 1949 100 3415 Isaac 60 2049 60 3515 Jacob 130 2109 130 3575 Egypt 430 2239 430 3705 Exodus 480 2669 440 4135 Temple 3149 4575
The 480 years from the Exodus to the building of the Temple correspond to periods of time recounted in the books of Joshua and Judges that total to 460 years, which, when added to the time it took to go from Egypt to Israel, the reign of King David, and the first few years of the reign of King Solomon, to 504 years. This is typically resolved by presuming that some of the reigns of the judges were overlapping.
And the year in which the Temple was constructed works out to be 973 B.C., by taking the reigns of the kings from David and Solomon onwards, to historical events which can be dated by eclipses which were recorded in Babylonia. This puts the first year of the world, or anno mundi, in either 4121 B.C. by the Masoretic text, or 5547 B.C. by the Septuagint. Of course, there are a number of other details about which there is controversy, leading to other proposed dates for Creation.
As noted, construction began on the Temple in the fourth year of the reign of King Solomon.
The reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah are recorded in the Bible as follows:
David (Judah) 7
David 33
Solomon 40 I Kings 11:42
Judah Israel
Rehoboam 17 Jeroboam 22 I Kings 14:20-21
Abijam 2 (3) (18) I Kings 15:1-2
Asa 41 (20) I Kings 15:9-10
(2) Nadab 1 (2) I Kings 15:25
(3) Baasha 23 (24) I Kings 15:33
(26) Elah 1 (2) I Kings 16:8
(27) Zimri 0 I Kings 16:15
(27) Omri,Tibni 4
(31) Omri 7 (12) I Kings 16:23
(38) Ahab 20 (22) I Kings 16:29
Jehoshaphat 24 (25) (4) I Kings 22:41-42
(17) Ahaziah 1 (2) I Kings 22:51
(18) Jehoram 11 (12) II Kings 3:1
Joram
Jehoram 7 (8) (5) II Kings 8:16-17
Ahaziah 1 (12) II Kings 8:25-26