Biblical Chronology

Chronological Records in the Bible

Numbers that provide clues for calculating dates appear throughout the Bible.

• Ages in the genealogies: Genesis 5 and 11 record the age at which each figure from Adam to Abraham fathered a son.
• Stated periods: Exodus 12:40 gives the length of Israel's sojourn in Egypt as 430 years. 1 Kings 6:1 states that construction of the temple began in the 480th year after the Exodus, that is, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign.
• Regnal years of the kings: The books of Kings and Chronicles date the accession of each king of Judah and Israel by synchronizing it with a particular year of the reigning king of the other kingdom.
• New Testament time markers: Luke 3:1 dates the beginning of John the Baptist's ministry to "the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar." Galatians 1:18 and 2:1 refer to events three years and fourteen years after Paul's conversion.

Background: Ancient Dating Systems

The ancient Near East had no unified era (a fixed reference point for counting years) like the one used today. Years were generally identified by the regnal year of a particular king. Scholars establish absolute dates by correlating the Bible with external records such as the Assyrian eponym lists and the Babylonian Chronicles. A solar eclipse recorded in Assyrian sources has been dated astronomically to 763 BC, and it is generally regarded as the anchor point of Assyrian chronology. By this method, the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel (around 722 BC) and the fall of Jerusalem (587 or 586 BC) can be dated within relatively narrow ranges. The farther back one goes, however, the wider the range of possible dates becomes.

Significance in the Bible as a Whole

The Bible presents a chronologically ordered narrative that begins with creation and moves through the history of Israel to Jesus Christ. Its chronological records indicate that this narrative took place in real history. The New Testament describes the coming of Jesus as occurring "when the fulness of the time was come" (Galatians 4:4), understanding Old Testament history as having moved toward an appointed moment.

Interpretations and Debates

• The genealogies of Genesis: In the seventeenth century, James Ussher, an Anglican archbishop in Ireland, added up the genealogies and calculated the date of creation as 4004 BC; this date was printed for a time in the margins of English Bibles. Young-earth creationism tends to regard the genealogies as continuous records without gaps. Other interpretations hold that generations have been omitted from the genealogies, or that their purpose is not chronological calculation; these views are held mainly by proponents of old-earth creationism. In addition, the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint give different ages in the genealogies, so the results of the calculation also vary depending on which text is followed.
• The date of the Exodus: Taking the 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1 literally places the Exodus in the mid-fifteenth century BC (the early date). Another view treats this number as symbolic and, on the basis of archaeological evidence, places the Exodus in the thirteenth century BC (the late date). Both views have supporters among evangelical scholars.
• The chronology of the kings: Simply adding up the regnal years produces discrepancies with external records. In the mid-twentieth century, Edwin Thiele accounted for these by positing coregencies and different methods of counting regnal years in the two kingdoms, and his chronology is widely used. Scholars nevertheless continue to disagree on specific dates.
• The life of Jesus: Because the Christian era established in the sixth century contains a miscalculation, many scholars place the birth of Jesus around 6–4 BC, before the death of Herod the Great. The crucifixion is most often dated to AD 30 or 33.

Even those who hold to biblical inerrancy differ on how the chronological numbers should be read. Accepting a particular chronology is therefore not necessarily the same question as acknowledging the authority of Scripture.

In the Korean Church

Study Bibles and Bible reading-through materials used in Korean churches typically include chronological charts. Some also follow chronological reading plans, reading the Bible in the order in which its events occurred. The question of the date of creation is frequently discussed within the church in connection with the creation and evolution debate.