Dating Da Deluge

Fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls, showing a portion of Genesis.

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"Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually . . . Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them, and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth . . . I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life . . . But I will establish My convenant with you" . . . Then the Lord said to Noah, "Enter the art, you and all your household; for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time" . . . In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the flood-gates of the sky were opened, and the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights . . . And all the flesh that moved on the earth perished . . ."

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"Now it came about in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up from the earth . . . Then God spoke to Noah, saying, "Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you . . . that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth". So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by their families from the ark . . . and God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth". (Genesis; 6:5 - 9:1)

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Last year after Christmas I went to Barnes and Noble and bought a book that was on sale called - The Timechart History Of The World (6000 Years Of World History Unfolded) - a 12" wide x 18" high book consisting of glossy Victorian style art, charts, timelines, maps and graphs that could be unfolded to 15' (plus another 15' of other interesting stuff on the flip side). The Timechart was based on a Victorian wall chart that was published in 1890, using dates calculated from the Bible and known history by an Archbishop Ussher in the seventeenth century. Genesis presents a history of a righteous line, that goes from Adam's son Seth, all the way to Abraham and to his desendents. Other books in the Bible also provide clues and information which pave a way straight through to Jesus. Scripture seems to go to great lengths to present this ancestral trail. Genesis was written by Moses, who would have used information passed down from his Hebrew ancestors. But Moses also spent two sessions of 40 days in the presence of God while at the top of Mt. Sinai, as well as being in His presence many other times in the tent of meeting, helping us to have trust in the historical information Moses provided as author of the 1st 5 books of the Bible. It sure seems to me that God had a purpose to put specific dates, times and ages into the accounts. And Archbishop Ussher used that information to create a timeline from creation until his day, also showing the origins and development of other major early civilizations as they progressed along that timeline.

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A problem we run into however, is that there always seem to be other pieces of the puzzle that pop up, which may change the calculations. Ussher came up with an exact day and hour for the creation of the earth and of Adam, and the year he came up with was 4004 BC (BCE). The flood of Noah is dated at 2348 BCE. Abram (Abraham) is born around 2000 BCE, and Jesus was born close to 4 BCE. These calculations have been used by many who study Biblical prophecy, and who are looking for the soon return of Jesus to set up His 1000 year reign on earth. The idea is that if we take the verses in scripture that say that "with God, a day is as a thousand years", and if we see the 6 days of creation in Genesis as being a pattern for the age of mankind on earth, then it would be logical to assume that since it was 2000 years from Adam to Abraham, and 2000 years from Abraham to Jesus, and 2000 years from Jesus to the present day (a total of six 1000 year days), then Jesus could return at anytime to rule for the last 1000 years (corresponding to the 7th day, when God rested from his labors).

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While this is a nice, tidy way to look at things, it can easily be seen that even for those of us who believe in the inspiration of the sacred scriptures, who believe that everything contained within them is there for a reason and a purpose, who see a literal Adam and a literal Noah, with a deluge that destroyed all life save that on the ark, that there are some difficulties with this seven, 1000 year day plan. One is that we are already well into the last 1000 year day, and another is that a flood date of 2348 BCE, while perhaps possible, does not look very probable. Yes, we need to turst in scripture, even when it may not agree with what science and history teaches. We need to also realize that science and history should agree with scripture. Certain scientific and historical conclusions may be tainted by prejudices of long time frames, uniformarinism, and atheistic viewpoints. But our scriptural interpretations may also be influenced by someone else's conclusions, or by limitations inherent in translation of language, text, or culture.

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Archbishop Ussher calculated his dates using a translation of the Hebrew scriptures known as the Masoretic Text (MT). From the MT, depending on how certain things are interpreted, one can date Adam anywhere from 4004 BCE to 4118 BCE, and The Flood anywhere from 2348 BCE to 2462 BCE. Of the different texts used for translating the Old Testament, and calculating in the same manner, the MT provides the shortest time frame from now, then back to the flood or to Adam. There is the Samaritan Text which dates the flood at 3112 BCE, and Adam at 4419 BCE. The Septuagint (LXX) can date the flood as late as 3242 BCE, or as early as 3547 BCE, and Adam as late as 5484 BCE or as early as 5803 BCE. To understand the differences, let me give you a very limited primer.

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Most of the Old Testament was in Hebrew, a language with an alphabet that did not use vowels or punctuation marks in it's written form, allowing for many words to have multiple meanings. The originals were made by hand, then recopied and passed on for generations, and the material used was subject to decay and destruction. The Hebrews were very concerned that the copies would be accurate, and had come up with different methods to insure accuracy. But mistakes can happen over time. Yet, even if the copies are perfect, there are always the questions; what was the original meaning of a word or phrase, and how should the words be pronounced when read in public? The oldest surviving texts in the original Hebrew only go back to the 1st century BCE, found in the pieces and sections known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. I remember from visiting the traveling exhibit that came to the Grand Rapids museum recently that, although the shapes of some of the Hebrew letters had slightly changed, the scrolls and fragements do show that the texts of the 1st century BCE were very close to those of the 10th century CE.

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The Septuagint (LXX) is a translation into Greek of Hebrew texts, done in the 3rd century BCE by a group of 70 (or 72) Jewish scholars. The Greek empire was ruling the Holy Land and many copies of the scriptures were made, some which have survived. This brings us closer to the original texts timewise, and although it is not the original but a translation, it does show how the Jewish scholars of the day interpretated the text they had. Commentators say that this was the text used by the Jews in Jesus day, and that evidence from the New Testament confirms that. The LXX was favored by some of the early fathers of the Christian Church, and was used as well by the Jewish historian Josephus. The MT was compiled in the 7th to 10th century CE, partly as a reaction by the Jews who saw the LXX being used by the Christians, and who wanted a purely Jewish translation. They included in the MT not just the Hebrew letters, but notations in the borders indicating 7th-10th century CE Jewish understandings of interpretation, punctuation and pronunciation. The Protestant translations of Archbishop Ussher's day used the MT as a primary source. Most of scripture is identical between what ended up in the MT and the LXX, but there are differences in the ages recorded for many of the personalities. I don't know which one is more accurate, but the LXX is certainly much more in line with what can be known for sure in recorded history outside sacred scripture.

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Three of the oldest civilizations with recorded history are the Egyptian, the Sumerian, and the Chinese. As far as I can tell, you really cannot be too sure on any of their records that predate 2800 BCE, and perhaps even earlier/later than that. There is a list of rulers carved into an Egyptian tomb, and if accurate, the list of kings for Egypt may be dated to a first ruler named Menes, about 3100-3150 BCE. The 1st Chinese dynasty was the Xia, dating from 2000 - 1500 BCE. Their Longshorne culture may predate that to 2500 BCE and their Bronze Knife culture may go back to 3000 BCE. Evidence seems to indicate that the Sumerians became an organized society around 2800 BCE. If we look at the spread of civilization listed in the Bible, we must first have time to build up family groups from the three sons of Noah, they had to be gathered together to build the tower of Babel, and then they needed to disperse to the rest of the world, eventually developing organized civilizations. It is interesting that history shows that not only do those 3 civilizations begin at about the same time, but that we know nothing about any organized civilizations that predate those. A flood date of 2348 BCE is really pushing the envelope of possibility, whereas the LXX date of 3242 - 3547 BCE should fit quite nicely with current interpretations of historical evidence. The only scientific obstacles are the claims of humonoid remains dating thousands or tens of thousand of years earlier, which are dependent on the accuracy of Carbon-14 and Radiometric type dating, and the presuppositions they are based on, or a certain fosselized tree ring theory. But they are subjects for another day.

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It seems to me that scripture, science and history can fit quite nicely with a fairly recent flood and a fairly recent Adam, if we are not bound by someone's teaching that requires a 7000 year time frame. Mankind is still suffering the consequences of a sin that happened perhaps 7500 years ago. Our present world geography was formed by a judgment against wickedness that happened perphas 5250 years ago. We all have hope because of a redemption, brought by the second Adam, that happened perhaps 1977 years ago. But the time of decision, for each of us, is today.