Ussher and year 4004

The age of the earth is one of the most contentious issues in the creation/evolution debate. In today’s culture, the thought of creation occurring about 6,000 years ago is not supported.

Ussher is famous for his assertion that the universe began 4000 years before Jesus was born (4000 BCE), and then writing a 1000 page book about his belief. The book starts at Genesis 1 and uses Genesis 1 to fill in the first 2000 years. Ussher then fills in the next 2000 years using a multitude of documents. There is no tie between most of the second 2000 years and the first 2000 years, he just identifies where people wrote about “X” happening between year 1 and 2000 years ago. What Ussher is missing is the documentation between 4000 years prior to Jesus and the prior thousands of years. Such documentation leaves out those records. Pre 4000 years before Jesus: for example, by about 6000 BC, a Neolithic culture rooted in the Nile Valley. During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt. The Badari culture and the successor Naqada series are generally regarded as precursors to dynastic Egypt. This is all left out, and assumed never to have existed at all.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the day of creation was October 23, 4004. Because the Jews and many other ancient peoples started their year in the autumn, Ussher assumed there must be a good reason for it. He therefore concluded that God created the world in the autumn at an arbitrary 4000 years prior to Jesus birth in October. After consulting astronomical tables, he picked the first Sunday on or after the autumnal equinox to begin the year 4000 BC. Then when it was determined that there had been an error, he changed it to 4004.

James Ussher (1581-1656), the famous Archbishop of Ireland in the seventeenth century, first declared that the world was created on October 23, 4000 BC., however, as stated, he found that there was an error of 4 years, and so year 4004 was adopted.

Ussher describes how to compare the “Christian” calendar to the Julian calendar:

The [Julian] cycle starts at noon, January 1, 4713 BC. and is a leap year. Here the lunar cycle is 1, the Solar cycle is 1 and the Interdiction cycle is also 1. Hence 1 AD is the year 4714 of the Julian period

Ussher did not always follow that convention.

I [Ussher wrote:] used the following abbreviations:
AD Years from the start of the Christian era.
AM Year of the World from creation.
BC Years before the Christian era.
JP Julian Year starting at January 1, 4713 BC.
NK Northern Kingdom of Israel.
SK Southern Kingdom of Israel.
After the time denoted by AM, one of four letters may be affixed.
a Autumn
b Winter
c Spring
d Summer

Ussher also wrote:

1a AM, 710 JP, 4004 BC

1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Ge 1:1 This beginning of time, according to our chronology, happened at the start of the evening preceding the 23rd day of October in the year of the Julian calendar, 710.

This date was widely accepted until people began to believe in ideas such as billions of years of Earth history. In other words, they started trusting in the latest secular findings based on fallible dating methods, instead of the only “absolutely reliable method”—consulting the history book provided by the Eyewitness account (the infallible Word of God).

In actuality Ussher just ignored all history prior to 4000.

Ussher also argued that Day 1 of creation was October 22. On the surface, this does seem a bit extreme to suggest such a specific date—but when one studies what Ussher did, one quickly realizes he was a well read scholar who had his own reasons for his conclusions concerning the date of creation.

The Basis for Ussher’s Work was the Bible

One of Ussher’s many projects was to write a complete history of the world in Latin, covering every major event from the time of creation to AD 70. He published this 1,600-page volume in 1650. An English translation entitled The Annals of the World was first published in 1658, two years after his death. (The complete work is fascinating. It has recently been translated into modern English and republished.)

Download it here (ask me for the username and password): ftp://www.herrickhomepage.com/public_ftp/Annals.pdf

In preparing this work, Ussher first made the assumption that the Bible is the only reliable source of chronological information for the time periods covered therein. In fact, before the Persian Empire (approximately the sixth to third centuries BC) very little is known from any source about Greek, Roman and Egyptian history or the history of other nations; much rests on speculation and myths. Dates in secular history become more certain with the founding of the Medo-Persian Empire.

For events before this time, Ussher relied solely on some of the data from the Bible to erect his historical framework. He chose the death of King Nebuchadnezzar as a reliable date upon which to anchor all the earlier biblical dates. Working backward from there, he ended up with his date for creation of October 23, 4004 BC.

Ussher’s assumptions
Relying on the Bible for data is perilous as there are several versions of the same data in the Bible. Ussher had to pick and choose between several different items in that data. Here are several examples of what Ussher needed to decide was the “right” version:
ERROR #1: Genesis missed Cainan, Ussher had to decide whether to add Cainan (as Luke did) or ignore him as Genesis did.

Luke included Cainan:

Luke 3

35 Which was the son of Saruch, which was the son of Ragau, which was the son of Phalec, which was the son of Heber, which was the son of Sala,

36 Which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Lamech

That is: Arphaxad had a son Cainan who in turn had a son Sala. Genesis did not include Cainan:

Genesis 10
24 And Arphaxad begat Salah; [not Cainan] and Salah begat Eber.

2.Genesis 11:12
And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:[not Cainan]

Genesis missed Cainan, twice, I Chronicles 1 did not include him, and so Ussher decided not to include him.

Following is part of Ussher’s calculation:

2346 BC – Araphaxad born when Shem was 100 – Genesis 11:10 – 1658 years
2311 BC – Salah born when Arphad was 35 – Genesis 11:12 – 1693 years

(ERROR #2, in spelling of Araphaxad)
2281 BC – Eber born when Sala was 30 – Genesis 11:14 – 1723 years
2246 BC – Peleg born when Eber was 34 – Genesis 11:16 – 1758 years
2217 BC – Reu born when Peleg was 30 – Genesis 11:18 – 1787 years

ERROR #5
FIRST SECTION OF TIME 1921 BC to 1491 BC – 430 years

BEGIN: 1921 BC Abraham left Haran and went to Canaan when he was 75.

Genesis 12:4
4 So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

6 And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.

—-Canaan is the area now called Israel, it is not in Egypt.

END: 1491 BC The Jewish Exodus
Exodus 12:40
Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.

—–How do you connect Abraham moving to Israel to the people living in Egypt?

There is no connection between Abraham and the “children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt”, thus the addition of 430 years to 2083 to get 2513 years is not supportable.

SECOND SECTION OF TIME 1491 BC to 1012 BC (479 years)

1 Kings 6:1
And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord.

ERROR #6 – 38 years vs 36 years vs 40 years
THIRD SECTION OF TIME 1012 to 974 (38 years)

1 Kings 11:42
42 And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.

ERROR #7 Jeroboam returned at the end of Solomon’s reign (976), not two years after.

ERROR #8 390 years of iniquity

Ezekiel 4
1 Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:

2 And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.

3 Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

4 Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.

5 For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

6 And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

ERROR #9 390 years of iniquity
There is no connection between the “iniquity” of the Jews due to Jeroboam and the deportation of the Jews to Egypt. Ahab was a King that had no iniquity! And he ruled less than 390 years after Jeroboam! There are no records of the time between Ahab and the deportation. Thus there is no connection and an incomplete time line again!

ERROR #10
According to the Hebrew Bible, there were three deportations of Jews to Babylon: the exile of King Jeconiah, his court and many others in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighth year; Jeconiah’s successor Zedekiah and the rest of the people in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year; and a later deportation in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year. These are attributed to c. 597 BCE, c. 587 BCE, and c. 582 BCE, respectively.
None are 584 BCE which is used by Ussher.

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The main problems with the Ussher calculation is his huge assumptions.

Assumption #1 – Ussher had to take Genesis 5, Genesis 11, or Luke 3, or I Chronicles 1 to build his time line. In addition Ussher used the Masoretic texts. For the first section, Genesis and Chronicles matched person for person, but Ussher used some Masoretic ages NOT King James lifespans and birthdates of sons. The Masoretic text shows from Noah to Abraham there was 390 years, the Bible calls the same Noah to Abraham duration 308 years, a difference of 82 years. Ussher used a duration of 320 years!

Assumption #2 was that Cainan did not exist in Ussher’s work even though Luke calls for him.

Luke 3……… Genesis5/11……. I Chronicles 1
Noe…………. Noah………… Noah
Sem…………. Shem……….…Shem
Arphaxad……..Axphaxad…..…Arphaxad
Cainan………(missing)…….…(missing)
Sala………….Salah……..……Shelah
Heber……….Eber………..…..Eder
Phalec……….Peleg……..……Peleg
Ragau……….Reu………..…..Reu
Saruch………Serug…………..Serug
Nahor……….Nahor….……..Nahor
Terah……….Terah…….……Terah
Abraham…..Abram……………… (Abraham)

Luke, Chronicles, and Matthew used the same names from Abraham to David.

Unfortunately only a few birth years were included, so Ussher grabbed the previously mentioned specious 390 time frame that does not have any tie to anything. Then he jumps to a 430 time frame that has not have a tie to anything. Then he jumps to a 38 year time frame, then he used a 390 year time frame. Finally a 584 year time frame with no tie to anything.

Ussher did not use any other genealogy from the Bible because it is such a mess:

Luke 3….Matthew 1
David……David
Nathan ……Solomon
Mattatha …Roboam
Menan ……Abia
Melea …….Asa
Eliakim ….Josaphat
Jonan …….Joram
Joseph ………
Juda ………
Simeon ………
Levi ………
Matthat ….Ozias
Jorim ……..Joatham
Elizer ……Achaz

Jose ………Ezekias
Er …………Manasses
……… …Amon
Elmodam Josais

Cosam ………
Addi ………
Melchi ………
Neri ………
…………… Jechonias
Salathiel ….Salathiel
Zorobabel Zorobabel
Rhesa ………
Joanna ………
Juda ………
Joseph ………
Semei ………
Mattathais ………
Maath ………
Nagge ………
Esli ………
Naum ……..Abiud
Amos ……..Eliakim
Mattathais Azor
Joseph ……Sadoc
Janna ……..Achim
Melchi ……Eliud
Levi ……….Eleazar
Matthat …Matthan
Heli ……….Jacob
Joseph …..Joseph (of Mary and Jesus)
Jesus…….. Jesus

SUMMARY

In a publication produced by progressive creationist Dr. Hugh Ross (who promotes the big bang, a local Flood, and age of the earth of millions of years and nonliteral days of creation, etc.), a cartoon mocks Archbishop Ussher. It characterized him as a “dunce” because he proposed that God created the universe around 6,000 years ago, and the days of creation were literal days. Ussher had what he thought were logical reasons for arriving at the year 4004, his proposed beginning date of creation. However, he did not tie any of the sections together, neither did he take into consideration that the entire premise was wrong.