The BibleGospel Companion
Event · Beginnings4004 BC

God creates the heavens and the earth

Dated from the sources quoted below

True span4004 BC – AD 100
Beginnings · 4004 BC – 1996 BC · 12 eventsBeginnings4004 BC – 1996 BCThe Patriarchs · 1996 BC – 1635 BC · 34 eventsPatriarchs1996 BC – 1635 BCEgypt and the Exodus · 1635 BC – 1451 BC · 19 eventsExodus1635 BC – 1451 BCConquest and Settlement · 1451 BC – 1400 BC · 7 eventsConquest1451 BC – 1400 BCThe Judges · 1405 BC – 1095 BC · 13 eventsJudges1405 BC – 1095 BCThe United Kingdom · 1095 BC – 975 BC · 38 eventsUnited Kgdm1095 BC – 975 BCIsrael and Judah · 933 BC – 721 BC · 27 eventsIsrael & Judah933 BC – 721 BCJudah Alone · 721 BC – 586 BC · 22 eventsJudah alone721 BC – 586 BCThe Exile · 586 BC – 538 BC · 7 eventsExile586 BC – 538 BCReturn and Restoration · 538 BC – 400 BC · 13 eventsReturn538 BC – 400 BCBetween the Testaments · 400 BC – 4 BC · 8 eventsBetween400 BC – 4 BCThe Life of Jesus · 6 BC – AD 33 · 42 eventsJesus6 BC – AD 33The Apostles and the Early Church · AD 30 – AD 100 · 29 eventsThe ChurchAD 30 – AD 1004004 BC — God creates the heavens and the earth4004 BC — Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden4004 BC — The serpent, the fruit and the curse3017 BC — Enoch walks with God and is taken2948 BC — Noah is born2469 BC — God warns Noah and commands the ark2349 BC — The Flood2348 BC — Noah leaves the ark; the rainbow covenant2247 BC — The tower of Babel and the scattering of the nations1996 BC — Abram is born in Ur of the ChaldeesCain kills Abel — placed by its order in the narrativeTerah takes his family from Ur to Haran — placed by its order in the narrative
the events of this period, each at its year — this one outlinedplaced only by its order in the narrativethe whole thread →

Told in

Genesis 1:1–31In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.Genesis 2:1–3The heavens, the earth, and all their vast array were finished.
Opening words from the World English Bible (public domain); the passage list is in-house

How we know the date

Only Ussher assigns a year, by adding the ages in Genesis 5 and 11 back from Abraham; ISBE says the Genesis numbers were not given as an exact chronology and declines to date the Creation. Ussher's Annals (1650) gives 4004 BC (its year of the world 1 a); ISBE's Old Testament chronology (1915) describes it without giving a year.

Written in-house from the sources below · every year is a quotation

The sources, word for word

“1. a. Lx principio creavit Deus ccelum et terram’, quod temporis principium, juxta nostram chronologiam, incidit in noctis illius initium, que vigesimum tertium diem Octobris preecessit, in anno periodi Juliane 710.”

Ussher, Annales Veteris Testamenti (1650), Latin text in The Whole Works of James Ussher, vols. VIII–XI (Dublin, 1864) · vol. VIII, AM 1 a · gives 4004 BC

“This theory takes the birth- and death-numbers just as they are, and by addition of the time intervals between the birth of the various patriarchs, together with Adam's age at the birth of Seth, shows that 1,656 years elapsed from the Creation to the Flood, and 290 years from the Flood to Abraham's birth, accor ding to the Massoretic Text.”

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · CHRONOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT · gives no year

Sources