It is intended in this study, to use the biblical records based on the assumption that the Bible is the Word of God, which was written and translated by men who were "inspired" of God. Therefore, where lengths of time are given in the Bible, they are taken literally. Wherever possible, cross-references are made with other texts to try and throw some light on those doubtful areas of chronology which have puzzled bible students since bible research began.

So, where does one actually start, when so many others (who were experts) before have had difficulty trying to sort out this bible chronology? Taking the guideline of what was traditionally acceptable, I have placed the beginning of this chronology from the year 0 AM (Anno Mundi), or 4000 BC (Before Christ). Then we'll see where we go from there. Interspersed with this assumption is incorporated various astronomical cycles, lunar and solar time periods, Jubilee periods as given to Moses, sunspot cycles, and occasionally some archaeological contributions. Dates for inclusion of the Egyptian Dynasties and Pharaohs come from the Encyclopaedia Britannica (mine is the 15th Edition, so it is possible that some of these dates may have been since revised).

It is hoped that this work be a "living and growing" document. So with an awareness of any proven scientific changes, or indeed any errors on my part which may be subsequently revealed, it is intended that this document will be updated. By the time I had logged the 540th 11.1-year sunspot cycle for 1995 AD, I was pleased to read recently that the last Sunspot Cycle did actually start in May 1996 AD, so these 6000-year sunspot calculations have proved to be accurate to within one year.

Fifty-year Jubilee cycles have been incorporated too. The biblical Jubilee period has been taken as a true 50 years, not the period of 49 years with the Jubilee being celebrated in the first year of the next 49-year period as the Jubilee calculation is often made. The 50-year year calculation produced some interesting correlations with the interpretation of bible numerology; these are referred to below, and they will unfold with the chronology as it is read.

The reference chart which accompanies John S Fox's book "Today, Tomorrow and the Great Beyond", claims that 223 moons regularly eclipse the sun every 18 years and 10.33 days, starting from 1/4/3996 BC in a series of 3 January eclipses, 3 February eclipses etc.36 similar eclipses move through the months, occurring again on first of fourth month after 649 years. As each eclipse occurs 10.33 days forward (18 years and 10.33 days) they divide the year circle astronomically into 360 degrees. This knowledge is found on stone tables over 4000 years old.

John Fox says in his book that planetary and eclipse producing cycles commence from one and the same day in the year 0 AM (or 4000 BC) Sunday 1/1/3996 BC, and that to date, such a position has never re-occurred. I do not know his source for this information, or if indeed this is true fact.

Modern scholars try to correlate data recorded in the Bible with archaeological information. The following quotation of interest is from The New Bible Dictionary - 2nd Edition - Chronology of the Old Testament published by Inter-varsity Press.

 

"Before 3000 BC, all dates are reasoned estimates. They may be subject to several centuries' margin of error, increasing with distance in time. The 'Carbon-14' method of computing the dates or organic matter from antiquity is of most service for the period before 3000 BC, and such dates carry a margin of error of plus or minus 250 years. Hence this method is of little use to biblical chronology; the possible sources of error in the method require that 'Carbon-14' dates must still be treated with reserve.

 

"The creation is sufficiently dated by that immortal phrase 'in the beginning ...', so distant is it. The period from Adam to Abraham is spanned by genealogies in the midst of which occurs the Flood. However, the attempts to use this information to obtain dates from the period from Adam to Abraham are hindered by lack of certainty over the right interpretation. A literal western interpretation of the figures as they stand yields too low a date for events recorded, e.g. the Flood. Thus, if for example, Abraham's birth is set at about 2000 BC (the earliest likely period), the figures in Genesis 11.10-26 would then yield a date for the Flood just after 2300 BC - a date so late that it would fall some centuries AFTER Sir Leonard Wolley's flood-level at Ur, itself of too late a date to be the flood of either the Hebrew or Babylonian records. Similar difficulties arise if Adam's date be further calculated in this way from Genesis 5 on the same basis.

 

"Hence an attempted interpretation must be sought along other lines. Ancient Near Eastern documents must be understood in the first place as their writers and readers understood them. In the case of genealogies, this involves the possibility of abbreviation by omission of some names in a series. The main object of the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 is apparently not so much to provide a full chronology as to supply a link from earliest man to the great crisis of the Flood and then from the Flood down through the line of Shem to Abraham, forefather of the Hebrew nation. The abbreviation of a genealogy by omission does not affect its value ideologically as a link, as could be readily demonstrated from analogous ancient Near Eastern sources. Hence genealogies, including those of Genesis 5 and 11, must always be used with great restraint whenever it appears that they are open to more than one interpretation."

 

According to this chronology, Enoch (7th generation descendant from and including Adam) is placed around 3378-3013 BC in biblical history. Enoch entered the priesthood (he separated himself from the sons of men to serve the Lord) at the time of Adam's death circa 3070 BC). Enoch was then aged 308 years.(The historic Book of Enoch (chapter 74, verse 12), states:

"And the sun and the stars bring in all the years exactly, so that they do not advance or delay their position by a single day unto eternity; but complete the years with perfect justice in 364 days. In three years there are 1,092 days, and in five years 1,820 days, so that in eight years there are 2,912 days."

Can it be true that, in Enoch's time, the year was 1.2425 days less the current year of 365.2425 days? If so, what caused the placement and/or positioning of the planets to change in order for this change in the calculation of time to happen?

Consider the time differences between the "Enoch" year and the actual year as it is now (circa 2000 AD) over the following periods of time:

1000 years	1.2425 days x 1000 = 1242.5 days = 3.4018494 years
1656 years	1.2425 days x 1656 = 2057.58 days = 5.6334626 years. There was 1656 years from when Adam was "formed" to the year of the Flood in the time of Noah.
2000 years	1.2425 days x 2000 = 2485 days = 6.8036989 years
3000 years	1.2425 days x 3000 = 3727.5 days = 10.205548 years
4000 years	1.2425 days x 4000 = 4970 days = 13.607397 years
5000 years	1.2425 days x 5000 = 6212.5 days = 17.009247 years
6000 years	1.2425 days x 6000 = 7455 days = 20.411096 years
6500 years	1.2425 days x 6600 = 8200.5 days = 22.452206 years

 

The following article is an extract from John Fox's "Today, Tomorrow and the Great Beyond" (which is bond-printed and in a different colour).. I have made a few comments here and there.

 

"The Antediluvians combined the LUNAR and SOLAR periods into the original pre-Flood calendar, as unveiled by Professor Dimbleby. The SOLAR YEAR with which we are familiar was 365.25 days, and the LUNAR YEAR was 354.36 days. They used twelve LUNAR months of 29.5 days, and adopted the procedure of counting their months as 30 and 29 days alternately. This was proved by Noah's records. So 12 x 29.5 days = 354 days, some eleven (10.8753) days shorter than the 365.25 days of the SOLAR year.

Comment: I have read from another source that the Hebrews used a calendar whose months were all thirty days in length, and this was derived from Genesis, that the seventeenth day of the seventh month was one hundred and fifty days after the seventeenth day of the second month. (One hundred and fifty days divided by five months equals thirty days per month.) Refer Genesis 7.11; 8.3; and 8.4

 

"The Antediluvian Calendar is easy to reconstruct, starting, as it must have done, from the first day of a new month or New Moon, which would also be the first day of a Week. The seventh day after this New Moon would be the first Sabbath, both of the lunar month and of the Lunar Year. Furthermore, the calendar, if of any scientific accuracy at all, must have opened with the first day of the true Solar Year also, i.e. from the September Equinox. If we were to tabulate a succession of lunar months of 30 and 29 days alternately from such a starting point, dividing them into weeks of seven days, we would produce a table of Sabbaths ... After tabulating seven successive years, the eighth year then becomes a repetition of the first, automatically producing a calendar repeating after every Sabbatic year.

"The true scientific solar year should open at harvest time, at the September equinox, but since each lunar year is approximately eleven days short of the solar year, this discrepancy would amount in seven years to approximately 77 days or nearly three months, gradually changing the opening of the lunar year from September to December. To balance the difference the Antediluvians added 77 "Days" to the Lunar Calendar at the end of each seventh (or Sabbatic) lunar year, thus bringing it level with the seventh solar year. The calculation for this adjustment (accurate to within three quarters of a day in seven years), is as follows:

7 lunar years = 7 x (29.53 x 2) = 2480 days

PLUS 77 days

EQUALS 7 solar years, i.e. 7 x 365.25 = 2557 days

NOTE: True solar days over a seven year period total 2556.6975 days. Therefore, 2557 days minus 2556.6975 days = 0.3025 of a day too much has been added at the end of seven years. If we extend the calculation over 21 years (0.3025 x 3), then 1.05875 days too much has been added to the lunar/solar adjustment. So does the "sun stand still" for a day at the end of every 21 years? Is this an expression meaning that a day is deducted from the calendar reckoning. If we extend this calculation, say, to the Jubilee period of 49 years (seven Sabbatic Weeks of Years), then (0.3025 x 7 = ) 2.1175 days too many have been added to the calendar. Maybe the "sun stood still" at the end of every Jubilee period, whereby a two-day calendar adjustment would be made. This could be relevant to the records in the Old Testament after the Exodus period, of Joshua, when "the sun stood still". Returning to Fox's writings:

"This intercalary period of 77 days, referred to simply in the Scriptures of Genesis as "Days", accounts for the strange expression 'At the end of days' (or 'in the process of time') found in such places as Genesis 4.3 ... 'And at the end of days' (probably the 77th day) a Sabbath in this case, falling exactly at the September Equinox ending the true scientific solar year ... 'it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground.'

"This calendar expression reveals the fact that Cain's offering was brought to the Lord at the close of a Seventh Year, or Sabbatic Year, a year of rest for man and for the land, in which God Himself provided every need. There was therefore good reason, according to Cain's understanding, for him to bring a harvest-thanksgiving gift unto the Lord. Indeed (maybe - my comment) God could not have been ill-pleased with Cain's offering; but He wished to teach these two brothers the lesson of the shed Blood, paying special respect unto the LAMB which Abel brought, rather than to the harvest of man's reaping. Cain's jealousy after the preferential acceptance by God of Abel's offering of a lamb, was an added transgression."

Comment: Another consideration here, could be that God was displeased with Cain's offering because it may have been harvested on the Sabbath, when there was to be no sowing and no reaping on the seventh day during which the land was to rest. Nevertheless, without God's specific reason given in the Bible, it is not for us to say what God thought! We cannot read God's thoughts! ...

 

"A close study of all the calendar references of Genesis reveals a scientific accuracy of the highest calibre, particularly with regard to Noah's account giving the dated events of the Flood period, which, when summarised, reveals that the Flood lasted exactly one whole solar year of 365 days from the first rain ('the seventeenth day of the second (lunar) month' of the year 1656 AM or 2344 BC, to the date of Noah's exit from the ark ('the twenty-seventh day of the second (lunar) month' of year 1657 AM or 2343 BC). This complete solar year equals one lunar year plus eleven days inclusive, i.e. 354 plus 11 days equals 365 days."

The reader can easily prepare "a full tabulation of each month of the Flood period with all the recorded dates entered upon it ... counting lunar months of 30 and 29 days alternately. The Year 1656 AM falls on a "fifth" year in which the fifth day of the first lunar month is a Seventh day or Sabbath day. When the Flood period is thus fully tabulated and all events entered (as recorded in Genesis 7.1; 7.10-11; 7.12; 7.24; 8.4; 8.5; 8.8; 8.6; 8.10; 8.12; 8.13; and 8.14) it will be noted that every date mentioned (except Genesis 8.5) falls on a Sabbath Day, a most remarkable coincidence!"

 

The records of Genesis as given in the Authorised Version of the Bible, show the flood to have taken place in the year 1656 AM or 2344 BC.

The next dated event in Scripture gives the birth of a grandson to Noah through the line of Shem "two years after the flood" (Genesis 11.10) - 1658 AM or 2342 BC.

According to John S Fox in "Today, Tomorrow and the Great Beyond" Noah introduced a new eclipse-repeating cycle calendar after the flood (in the year 1722 AM (2278 BC) based on years grouped in fifteens. Prior to this, the opening Adamic years (pre-flood) are all grouped in sevens.

Note that 2278 BC is 66 years after the flood date of 2344 BC. The year 2278 BC was also Noah's 666th year!

In the eleventh chapter of Genesis, Terah is born in the 1878 AM or 2122 BC. Terah's death is recorded at the age of 205 years, i.e. in the year 2083 AM or 1917 BC.

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