Can you guesstimate the year of Creation by computing the genealogy from Genesis 10 1 Chronicles 1 and Matthew 1?

Answer 1

You *could* guesstimate based on those things... whether it would be even close to accurate or not is very debatable however. First of all, inherent within your question seems to be an assumption that the creation all happened within one year. Several religious scholars believe that God's time is incredibly different than our own. Some even assert that God doesn't measure time for himself, but created it for us. He is eternal, so our minutes, days, and hours may have little meaning for him. Each creation period (translated as "days" in many versions of the Bible) would not necessarily mean the same thing as our 24-hour days. Some believe that the creation periods were excessively long in order to incorporate evolution or other scientific ideas into the process. Others believe that God created the earth from material found elsewhere in the Universe and not "ex nihilo" as some religions believe. Some believe that God planned everything out for a long, long time, and then did actually create the earth in 6 of our days. ... you would have to decide which you believe, and the estimate would only be good for others who believed exactly as you did. After hurdling that obstacle, you would have to confront the differences in generations. We don't know how long people lived, or how long they lived before they had children... especially in the early Genesis chapters before a limit was set on how long people traditionally lived. Reportedly, several people in Genesis lived hundreds of years, and so fixing those generations would be challenging. Admittedly less so, for a guess, than the first hurdle, though. James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh used Old Testament genealogies to calculate that the world was created in 4004 BCE on the evening of 22nd October. Others have have arrived at different values using similar methods. Either it can be done in a careful and scholarly manner or it probably can't be done at all. The latter case would apply if there is either insufficient information, or the information can conclusively be shown to be either defective in some way or else plain false. Many have attempted this kind of action over the centuries but discoveries in the field of Archaeology have continually added credibility to the Bible record of history. One example among many is the proven existence of the Hittites where they were previously considered to be mythical and the Bible thus in error.

Secondly, if it is to be done at all a 'guesstimate' would suggest that the result is likely to be unreliable or not able to really be calculated with any reasonable certainty.

If one includes only the passages in scripture mentioned in the questioin, then probably a 'guesstimate' would be right since there is a lot more to Bible history than the passages mentioned and all relevant factors need to be considered.

The process was a lot more complex than a simple adding of genealogical ages. So, a guesstimate would not be a proper way to describe the work of Usher or of the number of others who did similar calculations, including such noted scientists as Johannes Keppler and Sir Isaac newton. Even the noted atheist Stephen Jay Gould expressed appreciation for the scholarly work of Usher, although of course profoundly disagreeing with his conclusions.

Summary: If one uses only the data listed in the question then 'guesstimate' would indeed be a proper way to describe the conclusions reached as any dates would be anybody's guess. In the chapters given in the Question only names are given, with no ages such as are recorded in Genesis chapters 5 & 11. If all the relevant data is considered then the answer is a much more reliable figure, assuming one believes, as is quite reasonably the case, that one has a reliable document with which to work.

Answer 2

James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh used Old Testament genealogies to calculate that the world was created in 4004 BCE on the evening of 22nd October. Had he used Matthew, he would have arrived at a different value, because Matthew omitted Kings Jehoash, Amaziah and Uzziah who were recorded in Kings. Had he known what we now know about the origins of life, he would very likely have given up on this endeavour.

Some of the problems in using Genesis to estimate the age of the world, and the different ways of interpreting The Bible, can be found by visiting http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation