The BibleGospel Companion
Event · Beginningsc. 2349 BC

The Flood

Range across sources: 2516–2349 BC

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 7:1–24Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.
Opening words from the World English Bible (public domain); the passage list is in-house

Who and where

NoahShemHamJapheth
Names and references: STEPBible, Tyndale House Cambridge · CC BY 4.0

How we know the date

Both sources reckon from the Genesis genealogies but on different totals. Ussher's Annals (1650) gives 2349 BC (its year of the world 1656 a); Easton's (1897), under “Deluge” gives 2516 BC. The sources differ by 167 years; the year shown (2349 BC) is the one this timeline follows through this stretch, from Ussher's Annals (1650).

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

The sources, word for word

“1656. a. … Anno sexcentesimo vitz Noachi, mensis secundi die decimo septimo, Decembris septimo, feria prima, eo cum suis et animalibus omnibus in arcam ingresso; pluviam demisit Deus super terram quadraginta dies et quadraginta noctes : et prevaluerunt aque super terram centum et quinquaginta diebus’. ‘ Aquis deficientibus, wnensis septimi die decimo septimo,”

Ussher, Annales Veteris Testamenti (1650), Latin text in The Whole Works of James Ussher, vols. VIII–XI (Dublin, 1864) · vol. VIII, AM 1656 a · gives 2349 BC

“It began in the year 2516 B.C., and continued twelve lunar months and ten days, or exactly one solar year.”

Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · DELUGE · gives 2516 BC

Sources