# How Old Is the Earth According to the Bible?

> No verse dates the earth. Josephus, Africanus, Eusebius, and Ussher added the ages in Genesis to different totals. Ussher reached 4004 BC.

- Canonical: https://apologetics.wiki/christianity/biblical-chronology-and-the-age-of-the-earth
- Religions: Christianity
- Denominations: none
- Beliefs: none
- Tags: bible, creation, chronology
- Updated: 2026-10-16


No verse in the King James Bible says the earth is 6,000 years old. The figure is a sum. Chronologists added the ages in Genesis and the later reigns until they reached a year they could set beside a known king. Julius Africanus, working from the longer Greek-style ages, counted 5,500 years up to the advent of the Word. Josephus, Eusebius, and the Roman Martyrology reached other totals. James Ussher’s *Annals of the World* (1650) put creation in 4004 BC, and this site’s timeline records his flood in 2348 BC, labeled traditional, not a scholarly date. Churches that confess the Trinity still do not agree on whether those sums are the age of the earth.

## Key Points

- [Genesis 1:1](/bible/genesis/1/1) says God created the heaven and the earth. It does not give a year, and it does not say heaven existed for a measured age before the earth.
- [Genesis 5 and 11](/christianity/genesis-5-and-11-genealogies) shows the addition. The King James begetting ages, read without a gap, put the flood in year 1656 from Adam. Brenton’s 1851 Septuagint puts it in year 2242. Those are different totals.
- Josephus counts 3,102 years from Adam to Solomon’s temple. Eusebius counts 2,242 years from Adam to the flood on the Septuagint. [(6)](#ref-6) [(7)](#ref-7)
- Africanus writes that the Jews handed down “the number of 5500 years as the period up to the advent of the Word of salvation,” and that the flood was 2262 years from Adam. [(2)](#ref-2)
- The [timeline](/timeline) cites Ussher’s *Annals* and places his flood in 2348 BC and his date for Abraham’s birth in 1996 BC. Both are marked “Ussher (Traditional).” [(3)](#ref-3) [(5)](#ref-5)
- Henry B. Smith Jr. says ancient Christian writers argued for the longer Greek ages until the Reformation, when the Hebrew numbers became the usual Western base, and he names William H. Green’s 1890 essay as the case against reading Genesis 5 and 11 as a closed chronology. [(4)](#ref-4)
- [Evolution and Creation](/moral-questions/evolution-and-creation) quotes the Catholic Catechism and a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod answer on creation. That page is the disagreement about science and the days. This page is the history of the biblical sums.

## What the Sum Is, and What It Is Not

A chronologist starts where Genesis starts. [Genesis 5](/bible/genesis/5) gives an age at the birth of the next named son, the years after that birth, and a total life. Add the ages at those births, keep Noah’s 600th year as the flood ([Genesis 7:6](/bible/genesis/7/6)), and then keep adding through [Genesis 11](/bible/genesis/11) and the rest of the story until the list meets a date taken from outside the Bible. The result is only as long as the text that was added, and only as tight as the places where the text does not say which son was born in the year the father “begat” several sons.

[Genesis 11:26](/bible/genesis/11) says Terah lived 70 years and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. [Genesis 11:32](/bible/genesis/11) says Terah’s days were 205 years. [Acts 7:4](/bible/acts/7/4) and [Genesis 12:4](/bible/genesis/12/4) put Abram’s departure from Haran after his father’s death, when Abram was 75. That reading makes Terah 130 at Abram’s birth, sixty years later than a reading that treats the 70 as Abram’s own birth. Two honest additions of the same chapters do not land on the same year for Abraham. [Genesis 5 and 11](/christianity/genesis-5-and-11-genealogies) sets the arithmetic out. The flood year 1656 from Adam, on the King James ages, is 4004 minus 1656 only if someone has already chosen 4004 as the year of creation. Ussher did choose it. His preface says that from “the evening ushering in the first day of the World” to the midnight that began the Christian era “there was 4004 years, seventy dayes, and six temporarie howers.” His entry for Genesis 1:1 puts the beginning of time “upon the entrance of the night preceding the twenty third day of Octob. in the year of the Julian Calendar, 710,” the year of the Julian Period that answers to 4004 BC. [(3)](#ref-3) The spelling is the 1658 printing’s.

## Several Chronologists, Several Totals

Ussher is one name in a long line. Each of the writers below added the ages in Genesis, and they did not reach the same total, because they did not add the same text.

| Chronologist | Text added | Total, in his own source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Josephus, *Antiquities* 1.3.3 and 8.3.1 (first century) | His own Greek retelling of the Hebrew history | Whiston’s English prints 2,656 years from Adam to the flood, with 1,656 in brackets, and 3,102 years from Adam to the start of Solomon’s temple, 1,440 of them after the flood. [(6)](#ref-6) |
| Julius Africanus (third century) | The longer ages | 2,262 years from Adam to the flood, and 5,500 years to the advent. [(2)](#ref-2) |
| Eusebius, *Chronicle* (fourth century) | The Septuagint, set beside the Hebrew | 2,242 years from Adam to the flood, 942 more to Abraham’s first year, “for a total of 3,184 years.” [(7)](#ref-7) |
| The Roman Martyrology, Christmas Day | The Septuagint reckoning | The creation of Adam in 5199 BC, as the *Catholic Encyclopedia* reports it. [(8)](#ref-8) |
| James Ussher, *Annals of the World* (1650; English 1658) | The Hebrew ages | Creation at nightfall before 23 October, 4004 BC; Abram born in year 2008 of the world. [(3)](#ref-3) |

Josephus’s bracket is Whiston’s, not Josephus’s: the Greek text he translated reads the longer figure, and Whiston prints the Hebrew sum beside it. The same *Catholic Encyclopedia* article says the Hebrew, Septuagint, and Samaritan numbers differ and that “we cannot confine the years of man’s sojourn on earth to that usually set down.” [(8)](#ref-8) That is a Catholic reference work’s caution, not a ruling of this site.

## Africanus, Then the Hebrew Numbers

Africanus is not a footnote to Ussher. The fragments say the Jews, taught by Moses, “have handed down to us, by their extant Hebrew histories, the number of 5500 years as the period up to the advent of the Word of salvation, that was announced to the world in the time of the sway of the Caesars.” The same fragments say Adam begat Seth at 230, and that from Adam to Noah and the flood are 2262 years. [(2)](#ref-2) Those are the longer ages, the kind Brenton’s 1851 English also uses for Adam, though Brenton’s Methuselah produces 2242 rather than 2262. Eusebius is the historian who preserved Africanus’s letter on the two genealogies of Joseph, quoted on [Genealogy of Jesus: Matthew vs Luke](/christianity/genealogies-of-jesus). Smith calls Eusebius the first known author to set the Hebrew, Greek, and Samaritan age differences side by side. [(4)](#ref-4)

Smith’s own case is that the longer Greek chronology is original. This page does not adopt that case. What he documents, and what a reader can check on his page, is a long argument among Christian writers over which set of numbers to add. He says that argument ran for centuries on the Greek side, and that after the Reformation the Hebrew numbers became the usual base in the West. Ussher’s *Annals* belongs to that later choice. The edition opened here is the 1658 English printing. [(3)](#ref-3) The timeline’s own words for the flood are: “Ussher’s date, from the Masoretic ages in Genesis 5 and 11. A traditional view, not a scholarly date. The Septuagint ages give a much earlier date.” [(5)](#ref-5)

Green’s 1890 essay, as Smith describes it, is the other Christian move: stop treating the names as a year count. The textual piece of that move that this site can show without his essay is [Matthew 1:8](/bible/matthew/1) beside [1 Chronicles 3:11–12](/bible/1-chronicles/3). Matthew’s “begat” skips three kings. Genesis 5 does not say it has done the same. Both the closed sum and the gap reading are Christian readings. Neither is a verse that says “6,000 years.”

## The Age of the Earth Is a Different Question

A sum from Adam to a king is a biblical chronology. The age of the earth is a question about rocks, ice, and starlight, and about how a church reads [Genesis 1](/bible/genesis/1). [Evolution and Creation](/moral-questions/evolution-and-creation) already quotes the Catholic Catechism on creation and a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod answer that the synod has no official age of the earth and that the days of creation are ordinary days in that synod’s teaching. Those two Trinitarian bodies do not say the same thing. This page does not add a third verdict. Young-earth writers continue the Ussher kind of sum and defend it as the age of the earth. Other churches confess the same creed and do not.

[Genesis 1:1](/bible/genesis/1/1): “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Heaven and earth are named together. The verse does not start a clock for heaven before the earth, and it does not say how many years “the beginning” contains. [When Was Noah’s Flood?](/christianity/dating-noahs-flood) is the flood date, including claims of a catastrophe near 12,800 years ago. Those claims are not this sum.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Does the Bible Specifically Say the Earth Is 6,000 Years Old?

No. Genesis gives ages at births and lengths of lives. Six thousand years is what some additions come to once a creation year is chosen. Africanus’s figure for the advent is 5,500 years, not 6,000.

### Do Christians Believe the Earth Is 10,000 Years Old?

Christians disagree. Some defend a young earth from the biblical sums. The Catholic and Lutheran answers quoted on [Evolution and Creation](/moral-questions/evolution-and-creation) do not treat a single biblical year as the age of the earth. This page does not count how many Christians hold each view.

### Were There Humans 6,000 Years Ago?

The Bible does not take a census of the planet in a numbered year before Christ. A chronology that puts Adam near 4000 BC is one Christian reading. It is not a head count.

### Did Heaven Exist Before the Earth?

[Genesis 1:1](/bible/genesis/1/1) creates the heaven and the earth in one sentence. It does not date a heaven that already was.

## Keep Reading

[Genesis 5 and 11](/christianity/genesis-5-and-11-genealogies) holds the tables. [When Was Noah’s Flood?](/christianity/dating-noahs-flood) holds the flood traditions. [The timeline](/timeline) labels Ussher’s dates as traditional. [Evolution and Creation](/moral-questions/evolution-and-creation) is the disagreement among churches. [Who Wrote Genesis?](/christianity/who-wrote-genesis) is the book itself.

## Passages Quoted on This Page

### Genesis 7:6

King James Version.

> And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.

### Genesis 11:26

King James Version.

> And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

### Genesis 11:32

King James Version.

> And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

### Acts 7:4

King James Version.

> Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.

### Genesis 12:4

King James Version.

> 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.

### Matthew 1:8

King James Version.

> And Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias;

### 1 Chronicles 3:11–12

King James Version.

> [3:11] Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son, [3:12] Amaziah his son, Azariah his son, Jotham his son,

### Julius Africanus, fragment 18

Ante-Nicene Fathers, New Advent.

[Open on newadvent.org](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0614.htm)

> This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun.

## Sources
Numbered to match the HTML References list. Item 1 is `#ref-1` under `#references`. Scripture links to the King James Version on this site.

1. [Book of Genesis, 1:1; 5; 11](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/genesis/1/1). King James Version
2. [Julius Africanus, Extant Fragments, 5500 years to the advent; 2262 years to the flood](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0614.htm) (New Advent’s English of the fragments.)
3. [The Annals of the World, English edition, 1658](https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_the-annals-of-the-world-_ussher-james-abp_1658) (The 1658 English printing by James Ussher. The timeline’s source line names the 1650 chronology. The years on this page are the timeline’s labels, 2348 BC for the flood and 1996 BC for Abraham’s birth.)
4. [Henry B. Smith Jr., “Methuselah’s Begetting Age in Genesis 5:25 and the Primeval Chronology of the Septuagint”, The Reformation turn to the Hebrew numbers, and Green 1890](https://answersresearchjournal.org/methuselah-primeval-chronology-septuagint/)
5. [Timeline of World and Biblical History, Flood traditions; Ussher (Traditional)](https://apologetics.wiki/timeline)
6. [Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 1.3.3; 8.3.1](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2848) (William Whiston’s English, public domain, on Project Gutenberg.)
7. [Eusebius, Chronicle, Book 1, the Septuagint and Hebrew patriarchs](https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/eusebius_chronicon_02_text.htm) (Robert Bedrosian’s English of the Armenian version, on the Tertullian Project.)
8. [Catholic Encyclopedia, “Chronology, Biblical”, The Roman Martyrology for Christmas Day](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03731a.htm)

## See Also
- [Genesis 5 and 11: Masoretic and Septuagint Ages, and the Gap View](https://apologetics.wiki/christianity/genesis-5-and-11-genealogies) — King James ages in Genesis 5 put the flood in year 1656 from Adam. Brenton’s 1851 Septuagint is longer. A Samaritan table shortens three of those ages.
- [Can Christians Believe in Evolution?](https://apologetics.wiki/moral-questions/evolution-and-creation) — Christians confess that God created the heavens and the earth and made humans in his image. They do not agree on the age of the earth or on the means.
- [Does the Bible Say the Earth Is Flat?](https://apologetics.wiki/moral-questions/does-the-bible-say-the-earth-is-flat) — The Bible says four corners, a firmament, the circle of the earth, pillars, and foundations, and it says God hangs the earth upon nothing. The church texts fetched here do not teach a flat earth.
- [Did Jesus Abolish the Law?](https://apologetics.wiki/christianity/did-jesus-abolish-the-law) — No. Matthew 5:17 says he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it. He presses the commands further and ends the temple shadows in himself.
- [Do Catholics Believe in Evolution?](https://apologetics.wiki/catholic/do-catholics-believe-in-evolution) — Humani Generis does not forbid research into the human body as coming from living matter, and it says souls are immediately created by God. It refuses polygenism. The Catechism says studies of the cosmos and of life-forms invite admiration of the Creator.