Bob's Bible Data: Chronology

Chronology

The chronology in this wiki is based on a conservative view of the Bible. Statements of time in the Bible are taken at face value. The pages are organized by millenia.

Millenia	BC - AD	Years
BC4000	BC	4000-3000
BC3000	BC	3000-2000
BC2000	BC	2000-1000
BC1000	BC	1000-0
AD0	AD	0 - 1000
AD1000	AD	1000-2000
AD2000	AD	2000-2010

Correlations

Certain Bible dates can be correlated to events in secular histories. For example, Assyrian king lists help us to date the rulership of Ahab, king of Israel. Statements made by Stephen in his sermon in Acts and by Moses in Genesis and Exodus can be put together to create a framework around which other dates and events can be calculated.

However, the Hebrew writers of the Old Testament were not really as interested in dating their stories as we are. Further their concepts of dating and telling time differed from ours. For example, the kingdoms of Judah and Israel differed in how they calculated the regnal years of a king. One country calculated inclusively, counting the part of a year from a king's accession until New Year's day as year one. The other country counted year one as beginning on New Year's day. Further complicating the issue was that fact that there were two accepted New Year's days, one in the spring and one in the fall. Neither of which corresponds to our New Year's day of January 1.

It is possible to establish probable dates for some certain events. But more often the dates used here will be approximate and should be understood accordingly.

Paleology ( Before the Exodus)

When we get back before the Exodus we run into major issues. All we have before this time are geneological lists. These generally give the age of the father at the son's birth and the total years of life of the father. For each generation we can gain or lost several months depending on the system that was used to calculate the father's age. This means that the uncertainty principle grows as we journey back in time.

Further complicating early time calculations are the differences between the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, and the Massoretic, the original Hebrew, text. Comparison reveals a difference of over 1000 years. The Septuagint dating would make our world already over 7000 years old. The Massoretic would put us at about 6000 years. Which is correct? In these pages I will use the Massoretic text as the foundation for the dates. But it should be understood that the dates before Abraham may not be accurate and in fact may be off by hundreds if not thousands of years.

Still, no matter which text is used, the Bible does not support a world that is millions or billions of years old. Rather, it declares that our world was created in the very recent past, within the last 10,000 years if not within the last 6000 years. This does place the Bible student at odds with much of the scientific literature of the last two centuries.

CategoryChronology