Many years ago, not many people wondered how old the Earth was, because there was no reason to. People generally accepted the creation account recorded in Genesis as literal and accurate, for there was no prevalent conflicting view. In recent decades, however, the controversy between creationism and evolution has entered homes, schools, and has even caused division among brethren in the Lord. Evolutionists claim that the Earth is billions of years old, while most Christians hold to the belief that it is only thousands of years old. It is an important issue that needs to be examined in light of the one true source of knowledge, the Bible.

      The Bible contains a great deal of history, though it is not strictly a historical book. Likewise, the Bible contains a great deal of chronology and genealogy, though it is not strictly a family tree. However, the history and chronology contained within the pages of the Word of God arm us with enough information that we can determine and establish a relative age for the Earth (Thompson, 1999a, 19:57-63). Professor Edwin Thiele wrote:

We know that God regards chronology as important, for He has put so much of it into His Word. We find chronology not only in the historical books of the Bible, but also in the prophetic books, in the Gospels, and in the writings of Paul (1977, p.7).

      The Bible records exact chronological data from the time of Adam to the reign of Solomon. Using the Assyrian Eponym Lists and the Black Obelisk, we can determine that the death of Ahab occurred around 853-852 B.C. (Packer, et al., 1980, p. 48; Thompson, 1999a, 19:57-63), dating Solomon's 40-year reign (1 Kings 11:42) to the period of 971-931 B.C. (Merrill, 1978, p.97; Packer, et al., 1980, p. 50; Brantley, 1993, p.83; Thompson, 1999a, 19:57-63). 1 Kings 6:1 states, ". . . in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel . . ." Solomon's fourth year would have been 967-966 B.C., making the date of the Exodus 1446-1445 B.C. (Unger, 1973, pp.140-152; Archer, 1970, pp. 212-222; Packer, et al., 1980, p.51; Jackson, 1981, p. 38; 1990, p. 17; Thompson, 1999a, 19:57-63).

      We can add to this the Israelites' time in the land of Egypt of 430 years, as revealed in Exodus 12:40, giving us a date of 1876 B.C. as the year that Jacob went to Egypt (Packer, et al., 1980, p.50; Thompson, 1999a, 19:57-63). In Genesis 47:8, Pharaoh asked Jacob his age, and Jacob responded 130 years in the next verse, marking 2006 B.C. as the year of his birth (Thompson, 1999a, 19:57-63). Jacob's father, Isaac, was sixty years old at the birth of his sons (Genesis 25:26), and Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born (Genesis 21:5), bringing our date for the birth of Abraham to 2166 B.C. (Packer, et al., 1980, p. 54; Thompson, 1999a, 19:57-63).

      We must now work from Adam to Abraham, using the information provided by the Bible in Genesis 5 and 11. Adam was 130 years old at the birth of his son Seth (Genesis 5:3), Seth was 105 years old when he begat Enos (Genesis 5:6), Enos was 90 years old when he begat Cainan (Genesis 5:9), and Cainan was 70 years old when his son Mahalaleel was born (Genesis 5:12). So far, we have 395 years from the creation of Adam to the fifth generation.

      Mahalaleel was 65 years old when Jared was born (Genesis 5:15), Jared was 162 years old at the birth of Enoch (Genesis 5:18), Enoch was 65 years old when Methusaleh was born (Genesis 5:21), and Methuselah was 187 years old at the birth of Lamech (Genesis 5:25), who was 182 years old when he begat a son named Noah (Genesis 5:28). This gives us 1056 years from the creation of Adam to the birth of Noah (Packer, et al., 1980, pp. 56-57; Thompson, 1999a, 19:57-63).

      Noah was 500 years old when he begat Shem (Genesis 5:32), and Shem was 102 years old when Arphaxad was born two years after the flood (Genesis 11:10), bringing our total now to 1658-1659 years after creation (Thompson, 1999a, 19:57-63).

      Arphaxad was 35 years old when Salah was born (Genesis 11:12), Salah was 30 years old when Eber was born (Genesis 11:14), Eber was 34 years old when he begat Peleg (Genesis 11:16), Peleg was 30 years old at the birth of Reu (Genesis 11:18), Reu was 32 years old at the birth of Serug (Genesis 11:20), Serug was 30 years old when Nahor was born (Genesis 11:22), and Nahor was 29 years old when Terah was born (Genesis 11:24). We are now about 1879 years after creation (Thompson, 1999a, 19:57-63).

      On the age of Terah when Abraham was born, Thompson writes:

According to Genesis 12:4, Abraham was 75 when he left Haran, presumably after Terah died at 205 years; thus, Abraham was born when Terah was 130 years old, albeit he is mentioned first by importance when Terah began having sons at the age of 70 (Genesis 11:27; 12:4; Acts 7:4). (1999a, 19:57-63)

      Thus, Abraham was born 2009 years after creation (Thompson, 1999a, 19:57-63). Adding this number to 2166 B.C., which was determined as the approximate birthdate of Abraham above, gives us 4175 B.C. as the approximate date of creation, making man approximately 6175 years old, and the Earth five days older (Thompson, 1999a, 19:57-63).

      Some may argue that the tables given in Genesis 5 and 11 are neither literal nor consecutive, but five of the Patriarchs listed were clearly the literal fathers of their respective sons, and Jude 1:14 states that Enoch is "the seventh from Adam" (Jude 1:14; Thompson, 1999a, 19:57-63). There are also those who claim secular history goes further back than 4000 B.C. (Thompson, 1999a, 19:57-63). However, none of the prominent Egyptologists give the same time period for the last known period in Egypt's history (Thompson, 1999a, 19:57-63).

      Many point to gaps in the genealogies as reason for not accepting them as full and accurate accounts (Thompson, 1999b, 19:65-70). Arthur Custance, a man who searched for a way to accommodate the Bible to an old-Earth scenario, made an interesting observation about these gaps, however, when he wrote:

We are told again and again that some of these genealogies contain gaps: but what is never pointed out by those who lay the emphasis on these gaps, is that they only know of the existence of these gaps because the Bible elsewhere fills them in. How otherwise could one know of them? But if they are filled in, they are not gaps at all! Thus, in the final analysis the argument is completely without foundation (1967, p.3).

      Even if these gaps in genealogies did exist and were not filled in elsewhere, there would not necessarily be gaps in the chronology (Thompson, 1999b, 19:65-70). James B. Jordan wrote:

Gaps in genealogies, however, do not prove gaps in chronologies. The known gaps all occur in non-chronological genealogies. Moreover, even if there were gaps in the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11, this would not affect the chronological information therein recorded, for even if Enosh were the great-grandson of Seth, it would still be the case that Seth was 105 years old when Enosh was born, according to a simple reading of the text. Thus genealogy and chronology are distinct problems with distinct characteristics. They ought not be confused (1979/1980, p.12).

      It should also be noted that in the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11, the age of the father at the time of his son's birth would be meaningless and irrelevant unless God wanted us to know that information (Thompson, 1999b, 19:65-70).

      Some claim that Genesis 1:1 was not a part of the creation week, but that it happened millions or billions of years before, allowing time for another possible race of pre-Adamic man (Thompson, 1999b, 19:65-70). We know that Adam was the first man (1 Corinthians 15:45), and Jesus Christ stated that "from the beginning of the creation God mad them male and female" (Mark 10:6), making the Earth five days older than man (Genesis 1; Exodus 20:11; 31:17; Thompson, 1999b, 19:65-70).

      The Greek word for "beginning" is arche', and denotes "absolute, denoting the beginning of the world and of its history, the beginning of creation" (Cremer, 1962, pp.113, 114, emp. in orig.; Thompson, 1999c, 19:73-79). The Greek word for "creation" is ktiseos, and is used as "the sum-total of what God has created" (Cremer, 1962, p.381, emp. in orig.; Thompson, 1999c, 19:73-79). Wayne Jackson wrote:

Unquestionably this language puts humankind at the very dawn of creation. To reject this clear truth, one must contend that: (a) Christ knew the Universe was in existence billions of years prior to man, but accommodating Himself to the ignorance of His generation, deliberately misrepresented the situation; or, (b) The Lord, living in pre-scientific times, was uninformed about the matter (despite the fact that He was there as Creator--John 1:3; Colossians 1:16). Either of these allegations is a reflection upon the Son of God and is blasphemous (1989, pp. 25-26).

      Keeping all of this in mind, the Christian is still faced with a major obstacle: many scientific dating methods support the idea of an ancient earth (Thompson, 1999c, 19:73-79). This, however, should not surprise us, because of the "doctrine of apparent age" or the "doctrine of mature creation" (Thompson, 1999c, 19:73-79).

      This doctrine states that God's creation was made perfect, complete, and ready for habitation by mankind, as well as plants and animals (Thompson, 1999c, 19:73-79). It claims that God did not create the acorn, but rather created the oak tree. Likewise, God did not create Adam and Eve as infants, but as post-pubescent beings (Thompson, 1999c, 19:73-79). Thompson writes, "How old were Adam and Eve two seconds after their creation? They were two seconds old. . . . But how old did all of these two-second-old people, plants, and animals look like they were?" (1999c, 19:73-79, emp. in orig.). Thompson further states, "It is important to realize that the initial creation had two ages--one literal, one apparent. It literally may have been one day old, two days old, three days old, and so on. But it appeared to be much older" (1999c, 19:73-79, emp. in orig.).

      In conclusion, the Earth is five days older than man, Biblically speaking (Thompson, 1999c, 19:73-79). And, Biblically speaking, man is approximately 6175 years old (Thompson, 1999c, 19:73-79). Whatever objections may be raised, Christians can be certain that the Earth is thousands of years old instead of billions.

Archer, Gleason L. (1970), Old Testament Introduction (Chicago, IL: Moody).

Brantley, Garry K. (1993), "Dating in Archaeology: Challenges to Biblical Credibility," Reason & Revelation, 13:82-85, November.

Cremer, H. (1962), Biblico-Theological Dictionary of New Testament Greek (London: T & T Clark).

Custance, Arthur (1967), The Genealogies of the Bible, Doorway Paper #24 (Ottawa, Canada: Doorway Papers).

Jackson, Wayne (1981), "The Chronology of the Old Testament in the Light of Archaeology," Reason & Revelation, 1:37-39, October.

Jackson, Wayne (1989), Creation, Evolution, and the Age of the Earth (Stockton, CA: Courier Publications).

Jackson, Wayne (1990), "The Saga of Ancient Jericho," Reason & Revelation, 10:17-19, April.

Jordan, James (1979/1980), "The Biblical Chronology Question," Creation Social Sciences and Humanities Quarterly, Winter 1979, 2 [2]:9-15; Spring, 1980, 2[3]:17-26.

Merrill, E. H. (1978), An Historical Survey of the Old Testament (Phillipsburg, N: Presbyterian and Reformed).

Packer, J. I., Merrill C. Tenney, and William White, Jr. (1980), The Bible Almanac (Nashville, TN: Nelson)

Thiele, Edwin (1977), A Chronology of the Hebrew Kings (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan).

Thompson, Bert (1999a), "The Bible and the Age of the Earth [Part I]," Reason & Revelation, 19:57-63, August.

Thompson, Bert (1999b), "The Bible and the Age of the Earth [Part II]," Reason & Revelation, 19:65-70, September.

Thompson, Bert (1999c), "The Bible and the Age of the Earth [Part III]," Reason & Revelation, 19:73-79, October.

Unger, Merrill (1973), Archaeology and the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan).

E-MAIL: Jason Carter, jt_carter@yahoo.com
Return to home page