A Little Perspective on Biblical Dating

Sorry all you young single women, mothers of young single women, and anyone else who thought this was a blog about romance. It is about relationships in its own way, but the relationships between historical dates and not hormonally charged adolescents. I am neither a math nerd nor a history buff, but this is still something I thought was absolutely fascinating. Trust me, this is interesting.

World Created: Year 0
World Flooded: Year 1,656
Jacob/Israel Arrives in Egypt: Year 2,298 (1875 B.C.)
God Frees Hebrews from Egypt: 1,445 B.C.
David Becomes King: 1,010 B.C.
Israel Led into Captivity: 722 B.C.
Exiles Return: 537 B.C.
Nehemiah Restores Laws: 432 B.C.
Birth of Christ: 5 B.C. (Ironic, isn't it?)
Jesus's Death and Resurrection: 30 A.D.
Stephen, the first Christian Martyr: 31 A.D.
John's Revelation on Patmos: 95 A.D.

Yes I realize these dates are just rough estimates and will vary depending on what source you use as will most ancient historical dating. These approximations should be able to give a general idea of timeline.The dating transition between counting generations up from Adam and counting in B.C. lands in Jacob's lifetime, so that date is the one most subject to error. B.C. dating before that time is more likely to be faulty as would be Years After Creation after that time. However, thanks to extremely detailed genealogies, Years After Creation are exact up to that point.  However I do encourage you to take this with a grain of salt and to do your own research. This post assumes a creationist viewpoint, but its purpose is not to argue over the how literally Genesis 1 is to be taken, that will have to wait for another time and place. Rather this is to help show the progression of events after that point.

Just in case my little timeline has not conveyed my point sufficiently, here is a graph:

Over a third of the time recorded in the Bible happens before Chapter 7 of Genesis, over half in the book of Genesis all together. The New Testament covers only a 100 year time period, notice each box represents 200 years on the above graph. Supposing there were approximately 4,200 years between creation and the birth of Christ, we haven't even reached half that time since the birth of Christ.

All too often we skip over genealogies and whip through descriptions of passages of time and sorta forget they were there. Sure there was some time between the fall and the flood, but only a couple of generations. And we tend to think God turned His back on humanity pretty fast. The time between Joseph being second-in command of Egypt and God having to send ten plagues for Pharaoh to set them free is also underestimated and we think that Pharaohs must have short memories. In reality, these two often forgotten time spans added together exceeds the amount of time between present day and the Birth of Christ.

I hope this helps broaden your perspective the way it helped me!