EXPLORING THE WORD
The Fullness of Time
The Timeline between Adam and Jesus
Burt Lockwood
Although we do not have an exact figure we can calculate this pretty closely.
Sir Isaac Newton and Bishop Ussher gave almost identical dates for the creation at 4004 BC (Ussher) and 4000 BC (Newton). Newton being one of the greatest if not the greatest scientist of all time and Ussher being a highly regarded scholar of his day, both men had access to accounts and histories no longer even available today.
Jesus' birth is generally figured to be 4 to 6 BC not 1 AD. The Lord's death by crucifixion is dated between 30 and 33 AD, again based on best records and estimates that we have.
The Bible gives us dates to work with starting in Genesis chapters 5 & 11. "Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth" (Genesis 5:3). Chapter 5 ends with Noah who, at five hundred years of age, "begat Shem, Ham and Japheth." You will notice that these ages are "round numbers," that is between Adam and Seth, there could have been 130 years, and 2 months, 3 days, etc. So, is the Bible recording it as exactly 130 years means it could have been even 131 years or 128 years, rounded to 130 years. The Bible does not give us any more detail re: these numbers, but using the laws of math, 130 years could mean anywhere from 126 to 134 years, rounded to 130 years. At least that was what I was taught in math class.
But throwing in Genesis 11, you get the "round" number of 1656 years from Adam to the birth of Abram (Abraham). Further studies of ancient records place Abraham around 2100 to 2000 BC and Moses about 1440 BC, David 1000 BC, etc. Note that the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Old Testament done about 300 BC) adds several hundred years (1300 years to be exact) to the record, and we just do not know whether that was mistranslation or a deliberate attempt to falsify the ancient Hebrew text. Suffice it to say that through ancient records and the Bible text alone, you come to about 4000 years between Adam's creation and the birth of Christ. Since we now stand at 2016 AD, Bible records indicate a total of roughly 6000 years from creation to the present.
Darwinian evolutionists of course, decry such a young creation and claim billions of years from the creation of the universe to the present; obviously either the Bible records are faulty or the theory of evolution is simply false. Some Christians try to force in additional time with various schemes, theories to reconcile the "science so-called" that is evolution, and a "big bang" with the Bible. There are many reasons why those attempts fail. There was no death until Adam's sin about 6000 years ago, so how then do we account for the fossil record, little local floods over millions and billions of years, or one global flood as described in the Bible about 4500 years ago?! Peter tells us "whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished" (2 Peter 3:6). Peter is of course speaking of the global flood in the days of Noah.
One needs to only examine historical records to know that we have pretty complete records for civilizations that existed down to the village and town (tribe) level up to 6 or 7 thousand years ago, and none earlier than that. Who wrote the history of 120,000 BC for example? Obviously, no one. Yet according to one scheme of man's history, homonids no different than modern man existed up to 2 or 3 million years ago, and these "men and women" not physically different from us were not able to start recording history until 6 thousand years ago. Or could it be that history started 6 thousand years ago because that is when God created the universe and Adam and Eve? I leave that to your scholarship and wisdom to decide. Since Adam was created "very good," I doubt he lacked in intelligence or ingenuity, and he lived much longer than any of us do today; so, he had plenty of time to figure out a written code. Even the native American Indians, who supposedly did not write, used colored beads (wampum) to record their histories, a method of code no longer available today, long lost.
But even before Abraham was born, Jesus was alive and well being one with God, the Father and the Holy Spirit. He was born as a human, Son of Man, about two thousand years ago, but He is coming back soon!
Marana tha
Image Credit: Dave Harrison; "timeline"; Creative Commons
Tags: Biblical-Truth | Controversial-Issues | History-Apologetics | Science-Creation
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Published 2-14-17
