From the birth of Abraham to the death of Joseph

In my previous article, I covered from creation to the death of Shem – son of Noah. I said that covered 2158 years of human history. Now as we continue through the life of the Patriarchs, we come to Abraham.

There are at least two dates given for the year of Abraham’s birth. The first one we will consider is the early birth date of ca[1] 2166 BC. How this date is derived is by moving back in time. The year given for the Exodus out of Egypt is 1446 BC. Moses is 80 years old which means he is born in the year 1526 BC. We read in I Kings 6:1 that King Solomon begins to build the house of the Lord in the fourth year of his reign – 966 BC 480 years after the Exodus. Adding 480 + 966 = 1446 BC. Add in the 430 years the Hebrews were in Egypt before the Exodus, we get to 1876 BC. when Jacob enters Egypt at 130 years old (Genesis 47:9).

As we continue through our time machine, we go back to the birth of Isaac, Jacob’s father who was born 190 years ago from the time Jacob entered Egypt. 1876+190 = 2066 BC (Isaac’s birth). Abraham was born 100 years before Isaac which makes his birth year ca. 2166 BC. (Genesis 21:5).

Now, let’s look at another scenario regarding the birth of Abraham. This time we have to move forward in time. A sixteenth century Bishop named James Ussher (1581-1656) said that the beginning of creation was October 23^rd, 4004 BC. How did he come up with this date for the creation of the earth? Was it random? I do not believe so.

This is what he did.

Ussher used the Bible as his main resource particularly Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 along with astronomical charts and the Julian Calendar which is pretty much like the calendar we use now, the Gregorian Calendar – 365 days a year, and 366 days every four years. Ussher also used landmark events in the Bible such as the year of the Babylonian Captivity of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., and the year of the Exodus which he determined is 1491 BC.  Finally, using the autumnal equinox[2] Ussher determined the dawn of creation as October 23, 4004 BC. Ussher’s research for the beginning of the world is far more extensive than the few sentences than I have treated it here. To learn more, get a copy of his book Annals of the World to get the full story of how he calculated the history of the world using scripture and various main events in history up to the year AD 70.

Now using Ussher’s chronology, we have Abraham being born in the year ca. 1996 BC or year 2008 of creation. This is almost 2000 years before the birth of Christ – born 6 or 5 BC. The following flow chart presents a timeline from creation to the death of Joseph based on Ussher’s chronology:[3]

Year of the Earth	Event	Scripture	Birthdate
0	Creation	Genesis 1:1-31	4004 BC
130	Adam fathers Seth at 130 years	Genesis 5:3	3874 BC
235	Seth fathers Enosh  at 105 years	Genesis 5:6	3769 BC
325	Enosh fathers Kenan at 90 years	Genesis 5:9	3679 BC
395	Kenan fathers Mahalalel at 70 years	Genesis 5:12	3609 BC
460	Mahalalel fathers Jared at 65 years	Genesis 5:15	3544 BC
622	Jared fathers Enoch at 162 years	Genesis 5:18	3382 BC
687	Enoch fathers Methuselah at 65 years	Genesis 5:18	3317 BC
874	Methuselah fathers Lamech at 187 years	Genesis 5:25	3130 BC
1056	Lamech fathers Noah at 182 years	Genesis 5:28-29	2948 BC
1558	Noah fathers Shem at 502 years	Genesis 5:32	2446 BC
1656	The Flood in Noah’s 600th year	Genesis 7:10-12	2348 BC
1658	Shem fathers Arphaxad at 100 years; two years after the flood	Genesis 11:10	2346 BC
1693	Arphaxad fathers Shelah at 35 years	Genesis 11:12	2311 BC
1723	Shelah fathers Eber at 30 years	Genesis 11:14	2281 BC
1757	Eber fathers Peleg at 34 years	Genesis 11:16	2247 BC
1787	Peleg fathers Reu at 30 years	Genesis 11:18	2217 BC
1819	Reu fathers Serug at 32 years	Genesis 11:20	2185 BC
1849	Serug fathers Nahor at 30 years	Genesis 11:22	2155 BC
1878	Nahor fathers Terah at 29 years	Genesis 11:24	2126 BC
2008	Terah fathers Abram at 130 years	Genesis 11:26	1996 BC
2083	Abraham enters Caanan at 75 years. Ussher believes the 430 years begins here	Genesis 12:4	1921 BC
2108	Abraham fathers Isaac at 100 years	Genesis 21:5	1896 BC
2168	Isaac fathers Jacob at 60 years	Genesis 25:26	1836 BC
2258	Jacob fathers Joseph at 90 years in Padan-Aram	Genesis 30:24	1746 BC
2368	Joseph dies in Egypt at 110 years	Genesis 50:26	1636 BC

The problem I see with Ussher’s timeline is that the birthdates are off by about 170 years. For instance, the more widely accepted date for Abraham’s birth is 2166 BC not 1996 BC. 1996 BC is too late of a date. This also means all the other dates in his timeline off by the same amount -170 years. It is more effective to start from the Exodus of Egypt date 14 Nisan 1446 BC and work our way backward like I did before I entered the flow chart.

Another error I see for Ussher’s timeline is when he believes the 430 years began before the Exodus. He says the 430 years begins when Abraham enters Canaan in 1921 BC. As a result of this calculation, the Exodus occurs in the 1491 BC, 46 years earlier than the more popular date of 1446 BC. The 430 year sojourn in Egypt does not actually begin until Jacob arrives there in the year 1876 BC when he 130 years old (Genesis 47:9).

Therefore, I am not convinced that Ussher’s timeline is correct. I respectfully do not accept the 4004 BC dawn of creation date.

Continuing, Jacob dies 17 years after migrating to Egypt at 147 years old in the year 1859 BC. Joseph is 57 years old when his father dies. Joseph lives 53 more years and dies at 110 years old in 1806 BC (Genesis 50:26). He governs all of Egypt for 80 years as he began when he was 30 years old (Genesis 41:46).

The death of Joseph concludes the entire book of Genesis which covers over 2,000 years of human history - more than all the other 65 books of the Bible combined.

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[1] ca stands for about or approximately

[2] The Equinox is when the Sun causes the day and night on the planet to be almost equal in time.

Also the autumnal equinox happens every year in September 21,22 or 23^rd. This year for instance the autumnal equinox will take place on September 22^nd at 7:21 am PST. This is according to: http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/seasons.html?n=806

The reason for Ussher using October 23^rd instead of September 21st is because of the adding and taking away of days between the Julian and Gregorian calendars

[3] The last four entries of this chart I added to include the birth of Isaac to the death of Joseph.