Today, I’d like to wish our blue planet a very happy birthday! According to one famous historical calculation, Earth was created on this day—October 23, 4004 BC—at exactly 6:00 PM.
At least, that is according to Archbishop James Ussher (1581–1656). Ussher, the Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland, and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College Dublin, was highly regarded in his day as both a churchman and a scholar.
Of his many works, his treatise on chronology proved to be the most durable. Based on an intricate correlation of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean history alongside Holy Writ, his timeline was incorporated into an authorized edition of the King James Bible printed in 1701. As a result, it came to be regarded with almost as much unquestioning reverence as Scripture itself.
Having established the first day of Creation as Sunday, October 23, 4004 BC, Ussher calculated the dates of other key biblical events. For instance, he concluded that Adam and Eve were driven from Paradise on Monday, November 10, 4004 BC.
Noah’s Ark touched down on Mt. Ararat on Wednesday, May 5, 2348 BC.
How did Ussher arrive at this date?
He used the genealogies and chronologies found in the Hebrew text of Genesis 5 and 11, cross-referencing them with other biblical passages. To simplify his math, Ussher anchored his chronology to the final deportation of Judah in 584 BC. His detailed calculations span over 100 pages in the original text.
Modern science now knows he was only off by a few billion years—give or take!
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ussher
https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/james-ussher
https://www.dib.ie/biography/ussher-james-a8774
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