Through Biblical genealogy some suggest that the Earth is 6,000 years old, however, this number is far less than the number scientists have found through radioactive decay. I understand that there are certain assumptions radioactive decay measurements make, but I still struggle to see how it can be that different of a number. I have been reading Genesis to get a better idea, and I believe that scripture does not give a clear starting point for when Earth was created, but instead the creation of things in the earth is clearly defined by: “then there was evening and morning…”. Therefore, the earth could have been created far before anything in the earth, or the sun was created. Do any of you have thoughts on this?
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Not everything in The Judeao/Christian Bible is true. What is true is some of the Witnesses of what they saw. The indication of the Witnessing of St. Thomas not believing until He saw the Marks on The Resurrected Body of Jesus, I wonder if it’s true. Saul/Paul writings of after the Resurrection also are known to be True Writings. I think these problems of This Bible are for Non- Believers to criticize it and justify "There is no God’.
Welcome Joshua
It should be noted that geologists were certain that the earth had to be ancient long before radioactivity was ever discovered. Radiometric dating just confirmed those conclusions and provided more specific ages.
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Hi Josh, welcome here!
That’s right. It’s really precise about the day things were made, but not the year. I don’t think that’s a mistake. If I say my birthday is June 6, that’s enough to know when to send me a card, but not enough to tell if I’m a boomer, Xer or millennial. That’s because I’ve given a date to put on a calendar, not a timeline.
The days of Genesis are too vague to put on a timeline or calendar, but they’re just right for establishing a weekly template. And that’s what Exodus does with them: matches them up to a weekly cycle of six days work, one day Sabbath (Exodus 20:8–11 and 31:15–17). Other creation accounts in the Bible don’t use the days (such as Psalm 104, Job 38–39, Genesis 2:4–25). The days can’t help us determine how old the earth is, but they’re just right for establishing a human work–rest cycle. I think that’s their point.
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Very interesting, thanks for your response!
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Welcome to the forum.
One interpretation of Genesis is the Earth is 6,000 years old. But that is based on assumptions not present in Scripture.
And what usually doesn’t get mentioned is Genesis says “And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Evening and morning don’t add up to a day and in fact define the night time.
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In fact there is no consensus. Sincere Christians have a range of opinions on this issue.
“In six days God created the heavens and the earth.” That’s what the Bible says, and is therefore true for those who affirm the authority of the Bible.
But…
“In six 24 hour time periods God created the heavens and the earth.”
“In six undefined time periods God created the heavens and the earth.”
Both of these sentences (and other possibilities) result from our interpretation. It’s okay for you to go either way, but it’s important for us to hold our views with some humility and respect for different opinions. Personally I’m an “undefined periods” guy, but the important thing is to affirm God’s creation and not get fixated on the details.
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That is a measurement. The Bible is not a tool for measurements, nor is the Bible an entity that can come to a consensus. Readers of the Bible interpret the text and a very small minority of people have decided it teaches that the earth is 6,000 years old. The vast majority of readers don’t think any of the texts of the Bible intend to date the earth.
It can’t. Radioactive decay, unlike the Bible, is a way to measure age. There are a number of different isotopes that can be used for radioactive dating depending on what kind of rock or artifact you are trying to date. Scientists also use red shift in astronomy. There are other ways to measure age of specific things on earth (dendrochronology, ice cores, lake varves) and they yield measurements far greater than 6,000 years.
Genesis 1 is an ancient text describing God bringing order to creation and establishing his rule on earth. It was never intended to be a science or a history textbook, and treating it like it is one is problematic.
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The universe is 13.8 billion years old and the earth is 4.54 billion years old.
The Bible tells the story of our relationship with God on a considerably smaller stage (space and time), which is typical of most stories. Because of science we have become used to looking at things on much larger scales of space and time but for people when the books of the Bible were written this would be incomprehensible.
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5 dollars = 18,554 Ugandan Shillings
6000 biblical years = 4.5 billion solar years
That works out to be 1 biblical year = 750,000 solar years (our years)
2 big men = 5 small men. If you leave out the size, it becomes 2 men = 5 men. Since scribes those days had to hand copy (there were no Xerox machines) they took some liberties.
A similar situation exists in Hinduism where 1 year for Brahma = 3 trillion years for a human.
Why are you pretending the Bible says the Earth is 6,000 years old though? It doesn’t.
A guy named Bishop Ussher decided Creation occurred October 23, 4004 BC, and a bunch of people just ran with that.
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Yes, it slipped my mind.
Any idea if the Bible provides a timeline for creation? I know the 6 days story in genesis. Thanks
That’s it. Creation is framed as a seven-day work week. I would say for literary reasons. Many Bible interpreters now accept the idea of “functional creation” the John Walton has developed, where the Genesis 1 narrative describes setting the cosmos in order and God stepping into all of creation as a divine temple with humanity as God’s “image bearers.”
https://biologos.org/articles/what-does-image-of-god-mean
People have “calculated” the 6,000 year age by adding up the ages of the patriarchs listed in geneaologies. The problem with that is that specialists in ancient Near Eastern literature point out there was a system of using numbers symbolically to say things about mythologized figures (not necessarily saying the people never existed, just that they were “legendary” and their stories formed part of the identity-building mythology of Israel.)
https://biologos.org/articles/why-did-people-in-the-bible-live-so-long
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I still think it’s a mistake to use modern standard years for biblical time periods. Any astronomer will tell you that.
It’s a mistake to pretend the Bible is a geological measurement tool, yes. The ancients did understand what years were though.
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23 Oct 4004? What does this date mark?
Creation, according to James Ussher, which is what Seventh Day Adventist prophet Ellen White referred to and she was the inspiration for Henry Morris who is the main authority Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis refers to.
https://biologos.org/articles/ken-hams-alternative-history-of-creationism
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Um, no it isn’t – that’s a number held by a small fraction of Christians out of ignorance.
Which is a polemic against the ANE idea that night/darkness were enemies against which the gods had to do battle in order for the sun to rise again.
I have often wondered how he came up with that precise date so I looked into it.
Ussher used many non-biblical sources to come up with his date so it can’t really be said to be Biblically based.
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