Tell me where the bible says that that world is 6000 years old.
This ought to be good.
Notice that I have answered you, but you have not answered why you think the president is worthy of your support or undying love. I know you are too dumb to realize it now, but this shows a lot about you.
Simply put, it came from the Bible. Of course, the Bible doesn’t say explicitly anywhere, “The earth is 6,000 years old.” Good thing it doesn’t; otherwise it would be out of date the following year. But we wouldn’t expect an all-knowing God to make that kind of a mistake.
God gave us something better. In essence, He gave us a “birth certificate.” For example, using a personal birth certificate, a person can calculate how old he is at any point. It is similar with the earth. Genesis 1 says that the earth was created on the first day of creation (Genesis 1:1–5). From there, we can begin to calculate the age of the earth.
Let’s do a rough calculation to show how this works. The age of the earth can be estimated by taking the first five days of creation (from earth’s creation to Adam), then following the genealogies from Adam to Abraham in Genesis 5 and 11, then adding in the time from Abraham to today.
Adam was created on day 6, so there were five days before him. If we add up the dates from Adam to Abraham, we get about 2,000 years, using the Masoretic Hebrew text of Genesis 5 and 11.3 Whether Christian or secular, most scholars would agree that Abraham lived about 2,000 B.C. (4,000 years ago).
So a simple calculation is:
5 days
+ ~2,000 years
+ ~4,000 years
~6,000 years
At this point, the first five days are negligible. Quite a few people have done this calculation using the Masoretic text (which is what most English translations are based on) and with careful attention to the biblical details, they have arrived at the same time frame of about 6,000 years, or about 4000 B.C. Two of the most popular, and perhaps best, are a recent work by Dr. Floyd Jones4 and a much earlier book by Archbishop James Ussher5 (1581–1656). See table 1.
Table 1. Jones and Ussher
Name
Age Calculated
Reference and Date
Archbishop James Ussher
4004 B.C.
The Annals of the World, A.D. 1658
Dr. Floyd Nolan Jones
4004 B.C.
The Chronology of the Old Testament, A.D. 1993
The misconception exists that Ussher and Jones were the only ones to arrive at a date of 4000 B.C.; however, this is not the case at all. Jones6 lists several chronologists who have undertaken the task of calculating the age of the earth based on the Bible, and their calculations range from 5501 to 3836 B.C. A few are listed in table 2.
Table 2. Chronologists’ Calculations According to Dr. Jones
Chronologist
When Calculated?
Date B.C.
1
Julius Africanus
c. 240
5501
2
George Syncellus
c. 810
5492
3
John Jackson
1752
5426
4
Dr William Hales
c. 1830
5411
5
Eusebius
c. 330
5199
6
Marianus Scotus
c. 1070
4192
7
L. Condomanus
n/a
4141
8
Thomas Lydiat
c. 1600
4103
9
M. Michael Maestlinus
c. 1600
4079
10
J. Ricciolus
n/a
4062
11
Jacob Salianus
c. 1600
4053
12
H. Spondanus
c. 1600
4051
13
Martin Anstey
1913
4042
14
W. Lange
n/a
4041
15
E. Reinholt
n/a
4021
16
J. Cappellus
c. 1600
4005
17
E. Greswell
1830
4004
18
E. Faulstich
1986
4001
19
D. Petavius
c. 1627
3983
20
Frank Klassen
1975
3975
21
Becke
n/a
3974
22
Krentzeim
n/a
3971
23
W. Dolen
2003
3971
24
E. Reusnerus
n/a
3970
25
J. Claverius
n/a
3968
26
C. Longomontanus
c. 1600
3966
27
P. Melanchthon
c. 1550
3964
28
J. Haynlinus
n/a
3963
29
A. Salmeron
d. 1585
3958
30
J. Scaliger
d. 1609
3949
31
M. Beroaldus
c. 1575
3927
32
A. Helwigius
c. 1630
3836
As you will likely note from table 2, the dates are not all 4004 B.C. There are several reasons chronologists have different dates,7 but two primary reasons:
1. Some used the Septuagint or another early translation instead of the Hebrew Masoretic text. The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, done about 250 B.C. by about 70 Jewish scholars (hence it is often cited as the LXX, which is the Roman numeral for 70). It is good in most places, but appears to have a number of inaccuracies. For example, one relates to the Genesis chronologies where the LXX indicates that Methuselah would have lived past the Flood, without being on the ark!
2. Several points in the biblical time-line are not straightforward to calculate. They require very careful study of more than one passage. These include exactly how much time the Israelites were in Egypt and what Terah’s age was when Abraham was born. (See Jones’s and Ussher’s books for a detailed discussion of these difficulties.)
The first four in table 2 (bolded) are calculated from the Septuagint, which gives ages for the patriarchs’ firstborn much higher than the Masoretic text or the Samarian Pentateuch (a version of the Old Testament from the Jews in Samaria just before Christ). Because of this, the Septuagint adds in extra time. Though the Samarian and Masoretic texts are much closer, they still have a few differences. See table 3.8
Using data from table 2 (excluding the Septuagint calculations and including Jones and Ussher), the average date of the creation of the earth is 4045 B.C. This still yields an average of about 6,000 years for the age of the earth.
