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News: How Long Since the Creation of Adam and Eve?
Posted on Monday, January 19 @ 11:20:59 PST by Virgil

History preteristdave submitted: "Last year after reading an e-mail concerning the age of the earth I became interested in discovering if I could obtain a approximate age. Even if the days of creation are not literal 24 hour days it was still interesting to learn approximately when other certain events took place. I was also quite surprised to discover how this may effect my view of our history textbooks. My work and its results are listed below. If you discover any mistakes please let me know.

In the genealogies in Genesis chapters 5 and 11 it first mentions the age of the father when they had their son and then it says how long the father lived. I just listed the former because this is what we need.

Gen 5: 3And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. 130

Gen 5: 6 Seth lived one hundred and five years, and begot Enosh. 105

Gen 5:9 Enosh lived ninety years, and begot Cainan. 90

Gen 5:12Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalalel. 70

Gen 5:15 Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, and begot Jared. 65

Gen 5:18 Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch. 162

Gen 5:21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. 65

Gen 5:25 Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech. 187

Gen 5:28 Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son. 29And he called his name Noah, saying, "This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed." 182

Gen 7:6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth. 600
(Genesis 7:12 The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.) (Gen 7:24 And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.)

From the creation of Adam until the local flood would be 130+105+90+70+65+162+65+187+182+600=1656 years

Gen 11:10 This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood. 2

Gen 11:12 Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, and begot Salah. 35

Gen 11:14 Salah lived thirty years, and begot Eber. 30

Gen 11:16 Eber lived thirty-four years, and begot Peleg. 34

Gen 11:18 Peleg lived thirty years, and begot Reu. 30

Gen 11:20 Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot Serug. 32

Gen 11:22 Serug lived thirty years, and begot Nahor. 30

Gen 11:24 Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and begot Terah. 29

Gen 11:26 Now Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. 70

From the flood to the birth of Abram was 292 years.
2+35+30+34+30+32+30+29+70= 292 years

Gen 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. 2"And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly." 3Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: 4"As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. 5"No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. 99

Galatians 3:16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed," who is Christ. 17And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. 430

From the birth of Abram to the Exodus was 529 years (the giving of the law happened only 3 months after the Israelites left Egypt (Exo 19:1)).
99+430=529 years

1 Kings 6:1 And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord. 480

It was 480 years from the Exodus to the building of the first temple. (Solomon began building during the 4th year of his reign.)

1 Kings 11:42 And the period that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. 43Then Solomon rested with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David his father. And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place. 36 (I subtracted 4 because he began building during his 4th year)

1 Kings 14:21 And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king. He reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. His mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonitess....1 Kings 14:31 So Rehoboam rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. His mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. Then Abijam his son reigned in his place.17

1 Kings 15:1 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah. 2He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maachah the granddaughter of Abishalom...8So Abijam rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Then Asa his son reigned in his place. 3

1 Kings 15:9 In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king over Judah. 10And he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His grandmother's name was Maachah the granddaughter of Abishalom.... 24So Asa rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David his father. Then Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place. 41

2 Chr 20:31 So Jehoshaphat was king over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi....2 Chr 21:1 And Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. Then Jehoram his son reigned in his place. 25

2 Chr 21:16 Moreover the LORD stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabians who were near the Ethiopians....20He was thirty-two years old when he became king. He reigned in Jerusalem eight years and, to no one's sorrow, departed. However they buried him in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings. 8

2 Chr 22:1 Then the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his place, for the raiders who came with the Arabians into the camp had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, reigned. 2Ahaziah was forty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. 1

2 Chr 22:10 Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal heirs of the house of Judah. 11But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king's sons who were being murdered, and put him and his nurse in a bedroom. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest (for she was the sister of Ahaziah), hid him from Athaliah so that she did not kill him. 12And he was hidden with them in the house of God for six years, while Athaliah reigned over the land. 6

2 Chr 23:21So all the people of the land rejoiced; and the city was quiet, for they had slain Athaliah with the sword...24:1 Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba. Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. 40

2 Chr 24:24For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men; but the LORD delivered a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. So they executed judgment against Joash....27Now concerning his sons, and the many oracles about him, and the repairing of the house of God, indeed they are written in the annals of the book of the kings. Then Amaziah his son reigned in his place....25:1 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. 29

2 Chr 26:1 Now all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. 2He built Elath and restored it to Judah, after the king rested with his fathers. 3Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. 52

2 Chr 26:23So Uzziah rested with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the field of burial which belonged to the kings, for they said, "He is a leper." Then Jotham his son reigned in his place....27:1 1 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. 16

2 Chr 27:9So Jotham rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Then Ahaz his son reigned in his place....28:1 1 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the LORD, as his father David had done. 16

2 Chr 28:27So Ahaz rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem; but they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel. Then Hezekiah his son reigned in his place....29:1 Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. 29

2 Chr 32:33So Hezekiah rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the upper tombs of the sons of David; and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem honored him at his death. Then Manasseh his son reigned in his place....Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 55

2 Chr 33:20So Manasseh rested with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house. Then his son Amon reigned in his place.
21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. 2

2 Chr 33:25But the people of the land executed all those who had conspired against King Amon. Then the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place....34:1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 31

2 Chr 36:1 Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's place in Jerusalem. 2Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. (I will disregard adding these 3 months because of the 3 months we had to subtract between the Israelites leaving Egypt and the giving of the law.)

2 Chr 36:3Now the king of Egypt deposed him at Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 4Then the king of Egypt made Jehoahaz's brother Eliakim king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother and carried him off to Egypt. 5 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem....Jeremiah 25:1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), 2which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying....Jer 25:11 11And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 4

The time from the building of Solomon's temple to the beginning of the captivity is 411 years.
36+17+3+41+25+8+1+6+40+29+52+16+16+29+55+2+31+4=411

The captivity lasted 70 years and ended with Cyrus' decree to rebuild the city. (2 Chr 36:20 And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, 21to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.22Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, 23Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is among you of all His people? May the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up!) 70 years of captivity

Cyrus' decree is not the decree mentioned in Daniel 9:25 (see below). The order of the kings of Persia was Cyrus, then Darius, and then Artaxerxes (Ezra 6:14). Cyrus' and Darius' decrees did not call for the rebuilding of the city, but only from the rebuilding of the temple (Ezra 6:3-12). The decree in Daniel mentions the rebuilding the the city and the wall (Dan 9:25). Artaxerxes' decree mentions the rebuilding of the temple (Ezra 7:16) and the rest of the city (Ezra 7:18). Artzxerxes gave the decree during the 7th year of his reign (Ezra 7:7-9). We need to find out the amount of time between Cyrus' decree and Artaxerxes' decree. Cyrus gave his decree during his first year as king (2 Chr 36:22). The longest amount of time mentioned for Cyrus' reign is 3 years (Dan 10:1). We can make a good assumption that this was Cyrus' last year of reigning because it was during this year that a message was revealed to Daniel, and at the end of that message the angel mentions that he is going to return to fight with the prince of Persia (Dan 10:20). 3

The sixth year is the last year we have mentioned for Darius' reign. Ezra 6:15 says "Now the temple was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius." Then the rest of the chapter mentions the Jews offering sacrifices at the dedication of the temple, keeping the Passover, and having the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Ezra 6:16-22). Ezra chapter seven, verse one starts out by saying "Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia". So Darius probably only reigned six years. 6

Artaxerxes gave the decree during his 7th year (Ezra 7:7 Some of the children of Israel, the priests, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the Nethinim came up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes. 8And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. 9On the first day of the first month he began his journey from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.) 7

From the end of the captivity until Artaxerxes decree (mentioned in Daniel 9:25) is 16 years.
3+6+7=16

Daniel 9:24 "Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.
25"Know therefore and understand,
That from the going forth of the command
To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
The street shall be built again, and the wall,
Even in troublesome times.
26"And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
27Then He shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the desolate."

We know that the seventy weeks refers to seventy weeks of years determined for the Jews (Dan 9:24). This would come to 490 years (70X7=490). The first seven weeks were the 49 years that the Jews rebuilt Jerusalem. Then began the 62 weeks (434 years) which brings us to the baptism of Jesus in 27AD (Dan 9:25). After the sixty-two weeks (in other words it is after the set of 62 weeks and thus after the 69th week (7+62=69) He was cut off (crucified) (Dan 9:26). Both futurists and preterists agree that the 69th week leads up to a time between 27-30AD. Most preterists believe that "after the sixty-two weeks" (69th week) would refer to the 70th week where as futurists believe it refers to a certain point during an gap which is of an unspecified length of time yet before the 70th week. I believe that Christ's baptism began the last 7 years (the 70th week and the covenant confirmed with many for one week(I don't believe this is the same as the New Covenant)) and He was crucified in the middle of that week (30AD) and thus brought an end to God accepting the sacrifices and offerings being made in the temple (Dan 9:27) because of Christ's perfect sacrifice on the cross (Heb 10:10-18). The latter half of the 70th week was when the gospel went out to the Jews alone. In 33AD when the 70th week was finished, the gospel began going out to the Gentiles (Acts 10:34-48). Many believe that Jesus was born in 4BC and was crucified in 30AD so 30AD would be 487 years after Artaxerxes' decree. Let's subtract 30 years from 487 to bring us to 1BC (remember there is no year zero).

487-30=457
There are 457 years from Artaxerxes decree to 1BC and there are 2004 years from 1BC to the present.

Conclusion:
There are 2004 years from 1BC to the present, 457 years from Artaxerxes decree to 1BC, 16 years between the end of the captivity and Artaxerxes decree, 70 years of captivity, 411 years from the building of Solomon's temple to the beginning of captivity, 480 years from the Exodus to the building of Solomon's temple, from the birth of Abram to the Exodus was 529 years, from the flood to the birth of Abram was 292 years, and from the creation of Adam and Eve until the flood was 1656 years.

2004+457+16+70+411+480+529+292+1656=5915 years ago

I believe this is an extremely close number. From the creation of the Adam and Eve until now I only see the possiblity for small gaps which would include situations like: the time of the year that the father had his son in the genealogies, the length of the flood, and the time of the year that each king began reigning, etc.

This means the captivity ended around 473BC, the captivity began around 543BC, Solomon's temple was built around 954BC, the Exodus and giving of the law occured around 1434BC, Abram was born around 1963 BC, the flood occured around 2255BC, and Adam and Eve were created around 3911BC.

Because the Bible is true we have many serious problems with our ancient history textbooks (secular and Christian). One example of this is the teaching that the Egyptian and Chinese dynasties occured between 3000-5000BC. Either these ancient history events never occured or the dating for them is wrong. It looks like their is a lot of research to be done!"

 
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Re: How Long Since the Creation of Adam and Eve? (Score: 1)
by PreteristAD70 on Monday, January 19 @ 11:46:43 PST
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Preterist Dave:

Have you performed calculations using the LXX? The numbers vary quite a bit and will extend your chronology further into the past.

Best,

Mike Beidler


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Re: How Long Since the Creation of Adam and Eve? (Score: 1)
by JL on Monday, January 19 @ 13:30:58 PST
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Dave,

There's a lot of questionable assumptions you've made in the interpretations. When the Bible says that a man had 3 sons at a given age, what does that mean? They were triplets? I doubt it.

In the case of Terah and Abraham, by the standard rules of interpretation, Terah has Abraham at age 70, died one 135 years later, yet Abraham is only 75 years old at Terah's death. To get around this, Abraham leaves before Terah dies and Abraham dies before Terah. This interpretation begs the question of how Abraham knew how old Terah was when he died.

How long were the Israelites actually in Egypt? You have 3 generations requiring some 400 years.

You also need to consider the possibility that Gen. 1 and Gen. 2 are accounts of two seperate sets of events. Gen. 1, THE CREATION including man (hin) and Gen. 2, THE GARDEN including Adam (hadamah).

This allows the possibility of peoples and civilizations before 4000 BC. I don't believe anthropology shows any civilizations (tribal groups and villages are not civilizations) before the time of Adam, but it shows people before that time and continuous civilization from well before the time of the Flood.

JL


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Re: How Long Since the Creation of Adam and Eve? (Score: 1)
by psychopreterist on Monday, January 19 @ 13:31:24 PST
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I'm sorry call me non traditional but I just cannot accept the young age of the earth theory. I believe it makes chriatians look foolish and it often fails miserably when put to the test in formal debates. When I held the theory (and I was well informed on it) and using most of the argumentation presented in Reason and Revelation a church of Christ publication by Wayne Jackson and Bert Thompson I had a very embarassing debate with the ever famous atheist Farrel Till. I do believe that the alternatives presented by such brethren as Hugh Ross and John Clayton that accepts that the earth is more than 6000 years old is very convincing and effective and yet still a very consevative christian view. For instance there is an argument as per Clayton on the age of the universe. The argument is that many stars are located at a distance of many more than 6000 lightyears away from the earth. For their light to have reached the earth it would have taken more than 6000 years. If the cosmos is no more than 6000 years old than it seems that God is being decieving as to it's age for the laws of science governing the travel of light must (which were also set in place by God) are either being broken in this case, or simply the light is just a deception and the stars are really not there at all just a decoration. I'm not sure that I got the argument completley right, but you get the picture. I believe that for Christianity to be truly relevant in intellectual scientific circles we must abandon this ridiculous young earth and universe theory. As per Preteristdave, how can we be taken seriously by saying that the ming dynasty never happened? Bryan Forgy P.S. I am by no means an expert on this subject just a layman. But I can find many other arguments that the young earth theory cannot properly deal with.



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LXX to be preferred? (Score: 1)
by judge on Monday, January 19 @ 14:26:52 PST
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Here is a link (if you are interested) arguing that the LXX time line is to be preferred over the hebrew text we have today.
It seems that from Josephus's writing the hebrew text that existed in the first century had a longer timeframe than the one we received from the massoretic jews.http://www.ldolphin.org/barrychron.html



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Re: How Long Since the Creation of Adam and Eve? (Score: 1)
by jowl on Tuesday, January 20 @ 07:17:49 PST
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I think this is really cool - i have always wanted to see how people came up with these dates.

Since everyone here is talking about creation and whether literal or not, i want to add my two cents.

From my understanding - there are many creation stories - that involve the earth coming out of the water. Babylonian, Egyptian, and even some Chineese tradition. Many of these are easily older than the Genesis text.

Now - most important to me would be Egyptian - having the most plausible influence on the minds of the original audience of Genesis - those leaving its bondage.

Certainly over the 400 years - some of the people of israel would have learned the creation stories of Egypt (there are several).

It is no secret the water (the god of water was named nile) was important to the Egyptian economy. There are creation stories about how the whole earth was covered with water. There was also a story about one goddess playing dice or something like that with the god of time (thoth? - been a while!). Anyway - the story was striking cause it talked about how she was punished for infidelity. The curse was that she could not have relations "on any day of the year". Well - she went to thoth and in effect had him create and set aside 6 days for her. These days were not part of the "year" - some kind of legal loophole!

Anyway - the story goes on that during these 6 days she - well - did her thing and bore Sun Moon Stars / Sky.

Sorry for the unresearched stuff - this is the best i can recall. Check it out your selves.

In any case - to my point!

Taking this into consideration - and that all these created being were gods themselves and were brought into existance by other gods - I think thta the point of genesis to to basically say this:

THERE IS ONE GOD AND HE CREATED EVERYTHING.

and the rest - is all to fit into a form that the original audience would recognize. Given that they walked among teh monuments of these pagan testimonies their whole lives.

just wanted to say that to me - the whole young earth thing does not seem to jive with me. I think that as with most NT - proper understanding means putting yourself in the shoes of the original audience. I think the same can be done with genesis.

js


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Re: How Long Since the Creation of Adam and Eve? (Score: 1)
by BigD on Tuesday, January 20 @ 07:32:59 PST
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A general suggestion, having read all of the comments: Most of us have been immersed in new earth creationism for decades, try reading some Christian old-earth creationists before you come down firmly on one side or the other. My two favorite books are "A New Look at an Old Earth" by Don Stoner and "Creation and Time" by Hugh Ross. This whole new earth craze got popularized in the past 100 years, primarily by the works of some Seventh Day Adventist, of which this philosophy is tightly intertwined with their dispensationalism. God made a dual revelation - His Word, and His Creation, a study of both would sync up perfectly if it weren't for our own limitations in the study of science and the interpretation of difficult, ancient, and highly limited texts.

Dave


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