The age of the earth is unknown. In Genesis 1, we read that the world was created in six days. But as we have seen in the Bible, a day does not represents a real day when it has prophetic meaning. Sometimes a day is a year, and sometimes it is a thousand years. In Genesis 1, it may be a billion years.
However, we know that the relationship of God and man began with Adam, in the year 3761 BC, according to the Hebrew calendar. (And in the notes below, we will explain why 3761 BC is very welll supported by the known dates of history.)
According to the time of Daniel and Revelation, the world should end after AD 2643. That is 2,300 days from AD 193, plus 150 years, or “five months” of the fifth trumpet. This 6,400 years can be represented as 12 hours of about 533 years.
The three periods of “14 Generations” in Matt 1:17 represent three “hours” of man. Below, we have calculated them as 533 years each which brings on right on target with the known dates of history, David and the Babylonian exile.
In the Book of Revelation, we find the last four “hours” of man. The first is foretold in Revelation 17. John said the ten kings, the ten states of Europe, would reign with the beast for “one hour.” This began with the East–West Schism of 1054. The second hour is described in Revelation 11. In that hour, a tenth of the city fell in a great earthquake. The Earth represents the people, and a quake is their shaking in war. In the Reformation, religious wars killed a tenth of the people in Europe. In Revelation 8:1, we read, “There was silence in heaven for half an hour.” In 1648, the Reformation wars ended with the Peace of Westphalia, and the martyrs ceased crying out in heaven. A half an hour, or 267 years, brings us to 1917, when fire was poured out of the altar, and “the hour of God’s judgment” began. The final hour is the “hour to reap … the harvest.”
| BC | Years | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 3760 | Creation | Gen 1:1-31 | |
| 3630 | 130 | Seth was born when Adam was 130 | Gen 5:3 |
| 3525 | 105 | Enos was born when Seth was 105 | Gen 5:6 |
| 3435 | 90 | Cainan was born when Enos was 90 | Gen 5:9 |
| 3365 | 70 | Mahalaleel was born when Cainan was 70 | Gen 5:12 |
| 3300 | 65 | Jared was born when Mahalaleel was 65 | Gen 5:15 |
| 3138 | 162 | Enoc was born when Jared was 162 | Gen 5:18 |
| 3073 | 65 | Methuselah was born was Enoch was 65 | Gen 5:21 |
| 2886 | 187 | Lamech was born when Methuselah was 187 | Gen 5:25 |
| 2704 | 182 | Noah was born when Lamech was 182 | Gen 5:28 |
| 2202 | 502 | Shem was born when Noah was 502 | Gen 11:10 |
| 2104 | 98 | Flood was when Noah was 600 | Gen 7:6 |
| 2102 | Arphaxad was born 2 years after the flood | Gen 11:10 | |
| 2067 | 35 | Salah was born when Arphaxad was 35 | Gen 11:12 |
| 2037 | 30 | Eber was born when Salah was 30 | Gen 11:14 |
| 2002 | 35 | Peleg was born when Eber was 34 | Gen 11:16 |
| 1972 | 30 | Reu was born when Peleg was 30 | Gen 11:18 |
| 1940 | 32 | Serug was born when Reu was 32 | Gen 11:20 |
| 1910 | 30 | Nahor was born when Serug was 30 | Gen 11: 22 |
| 1881 | 29 | Terah was born when Nahor was 29 | Gen 11:24 |
| 1811 | 70 | Abraham was born when Terah was 70 | Gen 11:26 |
| 1691 | 120 | Late births of Isaac, Jacob, and Judah | |
| 1603 | 88 | Late births in the time of Judges | |
| 1070 | 533 | 14 Generations from Abraham to David | |
| 537 | 533 | 14 Generations from David to Babylon | |
| 4 | 533 | 14 Generations from Babylon to Christ | |
| 4 | Birth of Christ (4 BC) |
notes to the timeline
a) The 400 Year Prophecy
When God prophesied the birth of Isaac, He said that after 400 years the Israelites would be delivered out of Egypt. From our timeline above, we can see that Abraham was born in 1811 BC. Isaac was born when Abraham was 100, and another 400 years brings to the year 1311 BC as the year of Exodus. This has been called the beginning of “the Jubilee of Jubilees.” From the year 3761 BC to 1311 BC is 2,450 years, that is 49 periods of 50 years. God told the Israelites that after 50 years, they should have a celebration of the year of Jubilee.
The Apostle Paul confirms the 400 years in Acts 13:20, ὡς ἔτεσιν τετρακοσίοις καὶ πεντήκοντα. καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἔδωκεν κριτὰς, “About 450 years, then after this He gave them judges.” That is 400 years from Isaac to the Exodus, 40 years in the wilderness and then about 10 years as the land was distributed, after the conquests by Joshua.
b) Late Births of Isaac, Jacob, and Judah
Isaac was born when Abraham was 100, Jacob was born when Isaac was 60, and Jacob did not marry until 84 years old. To our expectation of 533 years for 14 generation, we need to add an extra 104 years to account for the exceptionally long lives of the Patriachs.
c) Late Births in the time of Judges
From the time of Exodus ini 1311 BC, to the birth of David in 1050 BC are five generations. The Bible gives us two genealogies of five generations from Exodus until the birth of David (1 Chr 26:24-25: Eliezer-Reheibiah-Jeshiah-Joram-Zichri-Shemoloth (vs.28) ; or Nahshon-Salmon-Boaz-Obed-Jesse-David as recorded in Matthew 1, Luke, Ruth and Chronicles).
This is an average time to childbirth of (1311-1950/5), 52 years. Our normal time to chilbirth is 533/14 = 38 years. Why would there be longer lives in this time period? Moses himself said that a normal man can only live to 70 years, or 80 years if he is strong (Psa 90:10). But Moses himself lived to 120 years, and Joshua to 110 years. Many of the Israelites in this time were filled with the Holy Spirit, as recorded in Numbers 11, and so like the early Patriarchs, some may have had later child births.
d) 1 Kings 6:1 and the Sedar Olam Error
According to 1 Kings 6:1, there was 480 years from the time of Exodus until the construction of the First Temple. This 480 years includes the so-called “300 years” of Deut 2:36 to Judg 11:26. This 300 years is backed up by several periods of “40” and “80” years in Judges 3:11; 3:30; 5:31; and 8:28. These 40 and 80 year periods appear to be figurative comparisons to the “40 years” in the Wilderness. In summary, 480 years is greatly overstated because it is a total of all these figurative 40 year time periods.
The Rabbis in their commentary recognize that the 480 years results in an average time to childbirth of more than 90 years to the birth of David. But they embrace the 480 years because they found that if they added 480 years to the time of the Exodus, and another 410 years to the second temple, then another 490 years brings them to the destruction of the second Temple in AD 70. They claimed that this fulfilled Daniel’s prophecy of 70 sevens.
But of course, we know that the first 69 of these 70 weeks takes us “from the command to restore and build Jerusalem until the Messiah comes” (Dan 9:25). The start date has nothing to do with the destruction of the first temple. But the Rabbis didn’t want to talk about the coming of the Messiah.
The Rabbis simply shifted about 167 years of world history to the time of the Judges, in order to avoid the association of Daniel’s prophecy with the coming of the Messiah. They chose to deceive themselves and the Jewish people, and rewrote world history. They shortened the time of the Persian Empire by ten kings and 167 years!
The beginning date of creation is not effected by this error. For the Jews who believe the Sedar Olam, this 167 years of history is shifted to the time of Judges.
| Event | Error | |
|---|---|---|
| Destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans | AD 70 | |
| Less the 490 years of Daniel | 420 BC | -167 years |
| Less 410 years for the first temple | 830 BC | |
| Less 480 years from the Exodus to the first temple | 1310 BC | +167 years |
| Less 400 years from the birth of Isaac | 1710 BC | |
| 100 years from the birth of Abraham | 1810 BC |