Many people, secular and religious, of different cultures and worldviews have attempted to calculate the age of the world. There is no agreement between them simply because it is an impossible task. Christians,[1] Muslims, and Jews have tried to do the calculation based on a literal reading of the Bible and have come up with different times. The following shows the impossibility by focusing on the widely used Jewish version.[2]
We do not know when some Jews first thought to calculate years from creation. We understand that the talmudic rabbis knew nothing of this calendar, called anno mundi, “year (of the) world,” and used the Greek calendar. Scholars, such as Azariah de’ Rossi, in his The Light of the Eyes, speculate that the anno mundi may have originated around the sixth century, after the Talmudic Period.[3] While this seems to be the date of its origin, it was not until relatively recently that Jews began to use it. Maimonides, for example, dated his documents with the Greek calendar in the thirteenth century. Jews adopted it recently simply because many forgot about its origin and thought it was a divine revelation to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. Other Jews accepted it because it is a “tradition, and one doesn’t question traditions.”
Jewry had good reasons for initially rejecting this calendar. There are theological, practical, and logical reasons why it is clear that the anno mundi is incorrect. The anno mundi inventor calculated the years since creation by taking biblical numbers literally. He relied on imaginative, non-factual, midrashic speculations of dates when the Bible was unclear. He accepted traditions about periods developed to teach homiletical lessons and not historical facts. Scholars feel that biblical time frames and dating were never meant to be taken literally. The Bible is not a history book. It is designed to teach about the existence of God and proper behavior.
The world may have been created over a very long period, humans may not have appeared on earth until millions of years had passed, and the average life span before the flood may not have been hundreds of years, as seems to be indicated by a literal reading of the Bible. When the Torah states that Adam lived for 930 years, it may refer to years that lasted from one lunar cycle to the next, about 29 ½ days. If the 930 “years” are divided by twelve (months), the result is 77.5 currently-calculated years, about the length of lives today. Even if the world was created in a single day, Adam did not die in the year 930 but in 77.[4]
The anno mundi is based on Midrashim. For example, scripture states that Noah bore three sons when he was 500 years old: Shem, Ham, and Yaphet. A midrash states that they were not all born in the same year.[5] According to the Midrash, Shem was not the oldest son, and he was born when his father was 502 years old. The anno mundi is based on Shem’s midrashic birthday, contrary to the biblical text’s plain reading.
Another problem with using the anno mundi is that some of the periods listed in the Bible are questionable. For example, it is possible to date the judges in the book of Judges one after the other, as the book implies, and insist, as does the anno mundi, that the period of the judges lasted over 500 years.[6] However, it is more reasonable to suppose that some judges must have overlapped since they served in different tribes. We cannot determine by how much, and scholars state the period was only about 200 years.
Similarly, when the Bible says that a king ruled for a certain number of years, it is unclear, even as the Talmud recognizes, whether the first and last years are full years of twelve months or parts of a calendar year. In the latter case, two kings would have ruled in the same year and this affects the anno mundi calculation.
Additionally, most post-biblical events are based on questionable traditions. Tradition states that the second temple stood for 420 years, while scholars count the second temple period as over 580 years, from 516 BCE to 70 CE. The anno mundi also assigns dates for people not even hinted at in Scripture; for instance, we have no idea how long King Saul reigned.
In short, some people take the Bible literally and do not accept the basic assumptions used by the anno mundi calculations. Some people take the Bible literally but develop different calculations of the periods mentioned because they interpret the events differently. Many do not accept the literal words in the Torah. Nevertheless, some Jews are convinced that it is a religious duty to use this calendar and feel good when they date their correspondence with the anno mundi year.
[1] The most famous Christian version, resulting, for example, in the year 2024, was not invented until 525 AD. The initials AD was used in the past and means “The Year of the Lord” (Jesus) in English. BC was used to indicate “Before Christ.” Today, most scholars use CE for “Common Era” and BCE for “Before the Common Era.”
The author of this calendar thought he was calculating since the birth of Jesus. He believed that Jesus was born in the year 1. He made a mistake. A careful reading of the New Testament shows that Jesus was born sometime between 6 and 4 BC.
The author forgot that in the New Testament Gospel, Matthew 2:16, Joseph and Mary were visited by an angel who told them Herod would attempt to kill Jesus, their son. Herod died in 4 BC. So, Jesus was born four or six years before Christ.
[2] When Rosh Hashana, the New Year, started in September 2023, the Jewish anno mundi year, for example, was 5784 since creation. This widely used calendar dates the patriarch Abraham’s birth to 1948, the same year the State of Israel was reestablished according to the currently-used secular calendar. It dates the giving of the Ten Commandments as 2448, which would be 3336 years before September 2023.
[3] The same time the Christian calendar was invented.
[4] It is possible that after the flood, the calculation of years changed, and people considered the difference from a warm to a cold season as a year, so two biblical years during this period are equal to one year today. While the Bible states that Abraham lived 175 years, Isaac 180, Joseph 110, and Moses 120, they would have died at ages 87, 90, 55, and 60, respectively.
[5] This midrash is not based on anything in the Bible and is contrary to what is stated.
[6] I Kings 6:1 seems to say the period lasted 360 years from the entry of the Israelites into Canaan until the onset of King Saul’s reign.
Re: If the 930 “years” are divided by twelve (months), the result is 77.5 currently-calculated years, about the length of lives today. Even if the world was created in a single day, Adam did not die in the year 930 but in 77.
Seth was born when Adam was 130. Are you going to tell me people were having children at 11 years old? I mean it’s not impossible, but hardly something we would consider normal today.
You are certainly correct. I realized this when I wrote what I wrote. All that I can say is we need to find a solution to the long lives before the flood and still long afterwards but not so long for awhile after the flood.The solution offered has problems. But we are beginning to think. Perhaps we will come up with a better solution in the future.
A friend of mine thinks that calculating the long lives of the biblical figures by lunar cycles wouldn’t work, since Enoch begot his son at 65 years, and if divided by 12 he would have been a father at 5 years old. Isaac living to 15 lunar years
180/12 = 15. Also, how would desert nomads calculate the year in the desert without seasonal change to guide them (e.g., trees losing leaves and blossoms)?
You are certainly correct. I realized this when I wrote what I wrote. All that I can say is we need to find a solution to the long lives before the flood and still long afterwards but not so long for awhile after the flood.The solution offered has problems. But we are beginning to think. Perhaps we will come up with a better solution in the future.
As per the calculations, the world is destined to exist for six thousand years; the first two thousand were of nothingness, without the Torah, the second two thousand were of Torah, and the third two thousand are the days of the Messiah. In context of the spiritual interpretation and Kabbalah estimate mentioned in the context, we are at the end of the sixth Shmita, equivalent to around 42,000 divine years which translates into about 15 billion human years. However, this is a matter of religious belief and interpretation, dear Rabbi Israel Drazin; best: stephen
Yes, this the belief of some Jews.
Hi Stephen,
Nice to meet you. Where are you getting the number 15 billion? What is the source for this Kabbalistic teaching? Is the Kabbalah teaching that the next two thousand years will be messianic years? And why were the first 2 thousand years without Torah, nothingness? The patriarchs lived before the revelation of the Torah on Sinai. Were they a part of this “nothingness”? What does “nothingness” mean?
Turk Hill
The further confound things, Seder Olam used a year 0 while our calendar doesn’t. When it writes that the Exodus happened 2448 years after creation, that’s 2449 in the modern Jewish calendar.
Thanks Shmuel. Yes, the Anno Mundi is not correct.
It is impossible to calculate the age of the world by using the Bible since time is calculated by the annual revolution of the earth, that it makes around the sun, is a year. But according to the Bible, the sun was not created until the fourth day. Thus, without a sun to calculate the movement of the earth, it is impossible to calculate the age of the world. The Bible is very obscure.
I like your idea that the ancients calculated the long lives from the Bible by lunar cycles. This explains the exceptionally long lives.
Off-topic. Why did God create the dinosaurs? And why did he wait millions of years for humans to evolve?
Good question. The answer is that we know nothing about God.
Because dinosaurs are awesome!
In a more serious vein, it allows us to study and understand God’s handiwork more than if things had just popped out immediately.
As usual, you come up with good ideas.
Hi Shmuel,
Thank you for your reply. You had a good answer. I agree with it. I like your idea that the creation of dinosaurs allows us to study God’s creations better.
I also like Rabbi Drazin’s answer, too. We cannot know why God does what He does but you gave a good rationale and may even be true.
Mr. Hill