Dating the Bible

Since the Bible is a collection of books, it is necessary to determine when and why they were written. The 66 books were written over a period of time -- especially from the days of Moses through the days of the Apostle John. This would be a period from about 1500 BC to AD 100, or about 1600 years. However, the collections were scattered out through patches of historical situations.

Genealogies are used to tie the historical parts together. Other genealogies are used to verify the importance of historical figures. In places, things are dated from historic events, be it the death of a king or the construction of a building. The reader's ability to contextualize is often necessary in understanding a passage.

As much as possible this dating should be done within the bounds of the text. However, sometimes the expositor needs to reach out to extra-biblical material for context. One source close to the Bible is the group of books deemed extra-biblical as early as AD 90 when the Old Testament books were "officially" endorsed by the surviving Jewish authorities of the dispersed tribes. These books came to be known as the Apocrypha and they were subsequently accepted by part of the Christian community. Having a record of the intertestamental period helps fix the limits of the chronology of the Old Testament.

With the New Testament, references to historical figures would be useless if there were no cross referencing with works outside of its 27 documents. However, the writer identified as "Luke the Physician" does mention internal dates, such as Jesus's approximate age, and Paul's own words as to his time in ministry.

Returning to the text itself, an approximate timeline can be constructed based on the genealogies in Genesis, the account of the construction of the temple, and the archives of the kings up to the exile from Judah. Further information, drawn from the accounts in the prophets, can be used to get within about 400 years of the birth of Christ. The relative date of the exile can be drawn from the text and then the genealogies of the gospels can be used to approximate the years between the testaments.

Matthew approximates a period of fourteen "generations" from the "carrying away into Babylon." Given 40 years as a generation, that would be 560 years, some of which were covered by the post-exilic writers. According to dating methods that correlate with the Bible, the exile ended in 538 BC. The exile was for 70 years, meaning that it began in 608 BC. Since the "generation" is only an approximate length of time (the average here is 43+), it is fair to say the record can be trusted.

In the New Testament, Jesus' ministry is "dated" by his entering the ministry 'at about 30 years old.' John mentions at least two, and probably three Passovers after Jesus's baptism. Jesus warns that within a generation Jerusalem would fall, putting a limit on all the historical events recorded. It has been debated that even John's writings were written before that date -- AD 70.

A Text Based Timeline
For coherence of the flow of Biblical time, the following chart will provide as detailed of a time line in Anno Mundus -- Year of the World. Counting back from the best attested date in Biblical history, the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar, the date of creation is around 4062 BC.

The 430 and 480 periods leading to and from the Exodus provide a foundation onto the genealogies. Also note that the uncertain date of Abraham is 60 years, leaving a bit of room for adjustments..

The 360-day Year
In places, especially in prophecy, it seems that the notion of a year has 12 months of 30 days each persists throughout Scripture. However, evidence from history indicates that the calendars were fixed even before Julius Caesar's calendar reform. It is possible that the perfect creation, in which the moon was designed as a sign for even months, may have been the origin of the 30-day month.

If the years were 360 days long, then year AM 1655 ended on a "Monday" with the year of the flood beginning on a "Tuesday." Thirty six days later, a Wednesday (the fourth day), the rains began and the fountains of the deep burst forth. This may have been caused by the moon being moved a sixtieth closer (reducing its orbit by a half-day). From that point, the year would take on its present length, and a new calendar was born.

The "Lunar" Calendar
Based on the way months and years are measured in the scriptures, it is easy to imagine that there was a general ignorance of the true length of years based on the apparent movement of the sun. However, the calendar in the day of Moses was already clearly understood to be connected with the seasons. The whole Levitical Feast schedule was based on a "new" calendar to begin in the spring rather than the "old" calendar that began in the fall.

The old calendar had its roots back in creation itself, and like the rest of creation, it was created "very good. " As late as the last book of the Bible the months were still considered to be 30 days long, with 12 of them in a year. Three and a half years is cited as "a time, times, and half a time," forty-two months, and 1260 days. These are citations going back to Daniel, where the puzzling phrase is used in prophecy.

Though the Bible does not explain the lunar calendar of the feast days in terms of days, there does seem to be a regular predictability to the seasons - the early harvest, the first fruits, and the final harvest. There seems to have been an understanding of an accurate calendar even among conflicting signals in the sky. It is most likely the case that the change from consistent 30-day months to alternating 30 and 29 days happened soon after the flood.

Antediluvian Dates
Though there is an addition in the Greek translation (not verifiable to the 1st century AD) of a second "Cainan" (as a grandson of Noah as well as of Seth!) that appears to be authorized by Luke, this most likely represents a copyists error that was not corrected. That aside, only one change has been made to the traditional dating here: Adam fathered Seth after he himself had lived 130 years. With no "year zero," Seth would have been born in AM 131, pushing all dates ahead by one year. The duration of the period ended on the seventh day of the second month of the year AM 1657. Based only on the genealogy given, only nine years could be added assuming no overlap of years.

To assign today's calendar to those years will basically take multiplying the years by about 0.98, "saving" about 30 years in all. The dates to accomplish an accurate consistent calendar will be accomplished by dating backwards from the fall date in AM 1657. However some adjustments will probably be needed as over a millennium of season drift.

That being said, the calendar began on what we will call 1/1/01 on a "Sunday" and was interrupted 596,197 days later on 2/7/1657, on the Sabbath day! Life gave way to death, in a big scale, leaving only those saved in the ark of "in whose nostrils was the breath of life." Concurrent with 40 days and nights of rain and "fountains" bursting forth, waters rose a total of 150 days before receding. It took another 150 days for the water to flow back into the new sea bottoms, but the ark came to a rest before that happened. There are a few ambiguities as to when the ark came to rest (See the article The Great Flood), but assuming the a change in the calendar came at the very beginning of the flood, it can be shown that the new' solar year was established with the flood.

As the flood began that Sabbath day, there remained inclusively 24 days in the 30-day month. Allowing for the slowing, the months became 29.5 days long instead of 30. Alternating the ten months remaining in AM 1657, 295 days are added to the 24 in the second month, making 319 days. Adding 29 days (month one of 1658) and the 17 days of month two, the total is 365 days! Since the the rain fell for 40 days and 40 nights, we can assume they began at dawn. It might even be that Noah left the ark exactly one solar year after the rains began (noon versus 6:00 am). If so, the new 365.25 (approx.) days would have defined the flood itself.