How many people in total died in biblical times?

Answer 1

The to this would be very difficult to calculate. If you are referring to deaths by all causes, then this would be almost impossible, especially if you mean all people everywhere. If the subject is narrowed down, there are details of particular times when numbers of people died from various causes, such as military battles, or diseases.

With regard to the military, even down to the present day, figures are notoriously inaccurate, depending on the type of conflict, although small scale conflicts allow for individual recovery of casualties and more accurate figures. In the ancient past, when war was more brutal (if such a thing is possible -all war is brutal), in terms of it being more hand on hand, it was also likely that less people died as the weapons were more 'technologically primitive.' Figures given would in many cases be rounded estimates, unless the context makes it clear, such as when the Israelites attacked Ai, in Joshua 7:5 it records 'about thirty and six' men were killed. So, even with such a small number they were still not sure how many.

What is known with regard to the Israelite conquest of Canaan, for example, is that the Egyptians, under Thutmose III conducted a series of military campaigns in Canaan before they came and so the population may have been already reduced. Further to this, there was time for people to flee, and some have noted that the population of Canaan at this time was not great.

Of course the biggest single recorded event in which people died was the flood of Noah's day, in which only eight people survived on the whole earth. Given the ideal and uniform climate that many believe to have existed at that time, millions of people are estimated to have died in this event.

In terms of perspective, it is worth noting that wars with more destructive weapons and 'mass murder events' under such people as Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot, would have accounted for well over 30 million in the turbulent middle of the twentieth century alone.

It is doubtful that all the recorded deaths in The Bible, particularly the Old Testament, get anywhere near this figure, for reasons stated above.