Jim Liles
Have you ever asked yourself: How old is the earth according to the Bible?
If we read articles written by Creation Science organizations, we find they agree an exact age of the earth cannot be derived from dates in Scripture. Many claim the Bible shows the age of the earth to be about 6,000 years old but give different answers as to the actual Biblical Timeline. It is assumed the dated years in any timeline are an estimate and are not included as part of God’s inerrant Word.
This isn’t a criticism of any author who has attempted to biblically date the age of the earth. Until recently—within the past ten years—we did not have the technology to accurately date earth’s history on a calendar converter like Rosetta Calendar. If the number of days on the calendar is not known, it is impossible to know the exact amount of time between dated events in the Bible. Until the publication my book, Earth’s Sacred Calendar: The Dated Events of the Old Testament, we had no way of understanding the accuracy of Biblical dates.
Many scholars teach the Bible’s calendar has 360 days with twelve months of 30 days each. One of the many problems with such a calendar is that it cannot possibly be a Hebrew calendar. A rule of the Hebrew calendar is that the four months of Tevet, Iyar, Tammuz, and Elul always have 29 days, never 30.
Other writers claim the calendar of the Old Testament is the solar Julian calendar or the current secular lunisolar Hebrew calendar. Ancient history seems very clear that there was no solar calendar in use until Julius Caesar ordered Astronomers to make it in 46 BC.
The Julian solar calendar was used to know when to plant and harvest crops. The calendar consisted of 365 days per year with a leap year day added every four years. Prior to this time, seasonal crops were planted according to the sun, moon, and stars as described in Genesis 1:14. The Julian calendar was in use during the writing of the New Testament along with the Hebrew calendar.
According my Bible chronology research, the calendar consistent with Scripture is a 364–day calendar. This calendar is neither lunar or solar and simply controls the seven days of the week with fifty-two repeating weeks in a year. This calendar is made up of the twelve months of the Hebrew calendar plus the days of Creation Week for a total of 364 days in a year. This Hebrew calendar also has 364 days with Julian calendar dates.
What makes this calendar unique is the dates on this calendar are the same day of the week every year. September 13–Tishri 1, “first month, the first day of the month” in Genesis 8:13, when Noah takes the covering off the Ark, always falls on a Friday. We know this because Leviticus 23:32 (NKJV) instructs that on the ninth day of the month (Tishri), “you shall celebrate your sabbath.” Leviticus 23:26 tells us the following day, Sunday–Tishri 10, is the Day of Atonement.
On the current secular lunisolar Hebrew calendar, Tishri 1 never falls on a Friday and the Day of Atonement never falls on a Sunday. The secular Hebrew calendar of today is not the ‘sacred’ 364–day Hebrew calendar found in the Old Testament.
The dates given in the Old Testament give the name or number of the month and the day number of the month. The day of the week is never stated since it is always the same for the same date. Babylonian and other calendars of the ancient world only show the name of the month and numbered day of the month just like the Old Testament. The day of the week is never mentioned.
As stated before, Tishri 1 is always a Friday and is also September 13. Ancient Hebrew books, The Book of Enoch and The Book of Jubilees, talk about a 364-day calendar but do not give the details. Only the 30–day month of Nisan was found at Qumran in Israel showing the first day of the month to be a Wednesday. The calendar of Qumran is also believed to be the 364–day calendar of the Old Testament. This means that Nisan 14–Passover would always fall on a Tuesday.
Using only the dated events in Scripture, a 364–day calendar and Internet calendar converters, my book is able to match dates in Scripture with dates on the Gregorian-Hebrew calendar. This is new information about the inerrancy of Scripture.
Jim Liles – The Timeline Guy
