A dilemma?
A Luke 21 subscriber recently challenged me as to whether we were close to the very end times only a decade or so away from 6000 years because Jewish chronology says that we are only at the year 5782 which means 5782 years after creation. A great question and something I have been pondering over the last few days because it has very important consequences. If we still have 200 years or so to go before Christ returns then I will be well and truly dead and buried. Everyone I am trying to reach out to with the Luke 21 ministry to escape to the wilderness should not be too concerned for another 200 years. Watching for the signs of the end and praying that we might escape all that is about to happen would be put on the back burner for a while yet.
Rabbi Yose ben Halafta AD 120.
September 7th, 2021 last year clicked over to the year 5782 in Jewish chronology, apparently a Sabbatical year, a special year that occurs every seven years or Shmita mentioned in the book of Exodus.1 It literally means “a year let go” or “release.” So now in Jewish reckoning, we are existing in the year 5782 AM (Anno Mundi) which means the number of years since creation. This follows “The Seder Olam Rabbah” or the “Book of the Order of The World,” which was compiled by Rabbi Yose ben Halafta (who died AD 160),2 and is to this day the traditional Jewish chronology. If in fact, this is true then we have a problem Houston and we are not in the very last days but still have a ways to go (a couple of hundred years to be exact) and the whole basis of my website is watered down because I have quite resolutely put forward my conviction that we have only just over a decade or so to go before Christ returns.3 Interestingly even the ancient Jewish rabbis believed there would be 2000 years without the law, 2000 years with the law, 2000 years with the Messiah, and then the Kingdom–a total of 6000 years also.4 The thing is that one could tend to believe that the Jewish rabbis have a better understanding and a more accurate chronology of world history than a Gentile Christian as they were entrusted with the oracles of God.5
Archbishop James Ussher, 1658.
And that is where Archbishop James Ussher comes in. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1581. As a young man, he resolved to devote himself wholly to the work of the Church, and the Lord honored him in his resolve. Ussher entered Trinity College at thirteen, wrote a detailed work on Hebrew chronology in Latin at fifteen, and graduated with a B.A. at sixteen. At eighteen he received his master’s degree and was appointed proctor of the college. At twenty he was ordained a deacon and priest in the Anglican Church at Dublin. At twenty-six he received a Doctor of Divinity and shortly after that he became Professor of Divinity at Dublin. In 1658, Archbishop James Ussher’s work “The Annals of the World” was published in Welsh, and now we have it in English. So, I think we need to sit up and take notice of what he said in his analysis of the chronology of the world. He calculated from the ‘Biblical Genealogies’ that Creation occurred around 4,004 BC. This is still widely held today amongst Christians. So between Halafta’s work in AD 120 and Ussher’s findings we have a discrepancy of 243 years. Halafta calculated creation occurring around 3761 B.C.
Which one?
So this is important to us–which one is correct? The Jewish Rabbi’s calculations or the Gentile protestant Archbishop James Ussher’s calculations? In the scheme of things, both are fairly close when you think of the Theory of Evolution’s belief that the world is billions of years old rather than a young earth less than 10,000 years old. After all, it is only a difference of 243 years! Both support a young earth theory.
Even if Ussher’s work is correct that places us over the 6000-year mark (4004 BC + AD 2022) at 6026 years after creation.6 So even his work suggests that we are 26 years beyond the mark and I am wrong in saying that Christ would return after 6000 years. But it is much closer than the rabbi’s calculations. So which one is right? Obviously, I think both have errors (Ussher’s less so) and that we are actually at the year 5986 AM (Anno Mundi) as of 2022.7
First of all the Jewish chronology is erroneous. Jonathan Sarfati of Creation ministries answers this discrepancy in answer to a similar question by a reader8…
"The point to remember here is that modern Judaism is not biblical Judaism. For one thing, modern Judaism missed the arrival of the Messiah—a most serious blunder!"
Actually, in the modern edition of Ussher’s Annals of the World, there is an explanation for the discrepancy in Appendix G. For one thing, there is a 60-year shortfall because the Rabbi was mistaken about Terah. Abraham was not Terah’s firstborn. Gen. 12:4 says Abraham was 75 when he left Haran, and this was soon after Terah died at 205((Gen. 11.32)) and the difference (205–75) means Terah was actually 130 years old when Abraham was born, not 70 (Ussher seems to have been the first modern chronologist to have noticed this point).
But more seriously, this Rabbi stripped over a century to make the Daniel 9 ‘Seventy Sevens’ prophecy fall on the false messiah Bar Kochba rather than on the true Messiah, Yeshua.
The modern edition of Annals explains in an appendix: By removing the 164 (or 165) years from the duration of the Persian Empire, Rabbi Halafta was able to make the 483-year Daniel 9:24–27 prophecy fall reasonably close to the years prior to the AD 132 revolt during which Bar Kokhba rose to prominence as Israel’s military and economic leader. At the time Rabbi Akiva declared Bar Kokhba as the Messiah and subsequently all the contemporary sages also regarded him as "the King Messiah,” with the Jewish populace uniting around this false hope.
Five-year discrepancy
So there were some important miscalculations by the Jewish Rabbi. James Ussher was a lot closer but Ussher also made mistakes and some minor miscalculations leaving us with 40 years to account for. One of those errors is when Usher places the promise made to Abraham occurring in his 75th year when leaving Haran after his father had died9 not his 70th year. Upon careful reading, Gen. 12:1 says that God appeared to Abraham at his home of Ur in Mesopotamia five years previously.10 The Law was given 430 years after God made the promise to Abraham while he was still at Ur in Mesopotamia. Working backward from Gen. 15:13 we know that the Law and the Exodus happened in the same year meaning that it was 400 years after Isaac was born and Abraham was 100. 500-430=70 (the age that God appeared to Abraham at Ur.) Therefore he was delayed at Haran for 5 years. So all in all there is a discrepancy here of five years.
A further discrepancy of 8 years
Discrepancies using secular data
As well as these previous two discrepancies in Biblical chronology not identified even so-called Biblical chronologists have used a combination of inspired text and secular sources particularly relating to the start of Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy. It is usually identified with the 20th year of the Persian King Artaxerxes.11 Rather, the correct decree for the countdown of the 70 weeks is the decree of Cyrus which was made in the very year that ended the Babylonian captivity.12 The error was made by chronologists because they used the wrong decree by the wrong Persian ruler. The confusion comes because if one reads Ezra 1:2 it says that Cyrus only decreed that the temple in Jerusalem must be rebuilt not the whole of Jerusalem and Dan. 9:25 says that the 70 weeks begins at the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, not the temple. But Isaiah clearly prophesies that Cyrus will decree that Jerusalem and the temple need to be rebuilt.13 This prophecy concerning Cyrus was given 200 years before he was even born. So all this confusion leads to confusion in timeline reconstruction. If one takes the correct decree as wrongly being from Artaxerxes then there would be at least 100 years difference.
Conclusion
My point is that when one mixes Biblical and secular data as all chronologists have done including the Jewish chronology which has many discrepancies, then it is impossible to be absolutely correct. Tim Warner contends in his book, “The Time of the End,” p. 244-245 that the only way to absolutely 100% know the Biblical chronology from beginning to end is to have a continuous God-inspired calendar. He says that the Bible provides that if one counts Jubilees from creation. For example, the birth of Abraham happened in the 40th Jubilee, the exodus in the 50th Jubilee (Jubilee of Jubilees) and the decree of Cyrus ending the Babylonian captivity was in the 70th Jubilee year and Christ returns on the 120th Jubilee year.14 120 x 50 = 6000 years. See the graphic below…
We are not in the year 5782 since creation as the Jews believe because they still follow Rabbi Halafta or 6026 as Ussher calculated in the 17th century but this is the year 5986 AM. This is proven by the Jubilee system. What that means is that I am confident that we only have some 14 years or so to go and we are in the end times. This will ultimately be proven correct or not when we see the first sign, the Two Witnesses one of whom is Elijah or a type of Elijah in the first half of the tribulation.15
Proposed countdown to the Two Witnesses...
- Exo. 23:11 [↩]
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_ben_Halafta [↩]
- https://luke21.com.au/why-2030-is-an-important-year/ [↩]
- https://diggingintoprophecy.wordpress.com/category/james-ussher-appendix-g/ [↩]
- Rom. 3:2 ESV [↩]
- 4004+2022=6026 AM [↩]
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anno_Mundi [↩]
- https://creation.com/6000-years-qa [↩]
- Gen. 12:1-4 [↩]
- Gal. 3:17 [↩]
- Neh. 2:1-10 [↩]
- Jer. 25:11-12 [↩]
- Isa. 44:28 [↩]
- Gen. 6:3 [↩]
- Mal. 4:5 [↩]
7 Responses
The dates are interesting but the 6 days of creation read differently than what most admit. First of all according to Genesis, Adam was not created at all. He was not formed until after the day of rest and the 7th day was the sabbath, the day of rest. Then God needed someone to tend the Garden and he formed Adam out of the dust of the ground and breathed air into his nostrils and he became a living soul. Then after going through all the animals there was not a sufficient help-mate so he made Eve from the rib of Adam. So if we start the time from Adam we cannot be accurate because no one knows how much time from the 7th day of rest until the formation of Adam.
Hi Danny,
Thanks for your comment. Gen. 1:26-31 clearly says that man was created on the sixth day. Gen. 2:7 says that man was formed by God but this simply gives a more detailed account of what happened on day 6. This is a typical Hebrew accounting of events. Hebrew story telling typically operates on block level with concepts and ideas and is not necessarily sequential or chronological unlike our Western Greek/Roman way of thinking. In other words chapter 2 is a recapitulation in more detail of chapter 1. It’s like the general overview in chapter 1 and then more detail about mankind in chapter 2. The abstract in chapter 1, the detail in chapter 2. That’s how things work in the Hebrew mindset. The Book of Revelation is also similar because the seal, trumpet and bowl judgments are not one after the other but roughly contemporaneous all ending at roughly the same point.
For more detail see my footnotes on Rev. 7:1 in my new EDV translation.
Thank you for diligent study!! I was wondering if you’ve considered Enoch’s “rapture” as a picture of the rapture of the church. From what I see, he was taken up in the year 987. This is interesting because if we add 5,000 years to his rapture, that puts us at 5987, which according to your study, we are about to enter. What are your thoughts on this? If Enoch was a picture of the rapture, doesn’t it make sense God would have that happen the same year our ultimate rapture would be?
Hi Chad,
Yes I have considered Enoch as a picture of the rapture but to clarify–the post-tribulational rapture of the church! See my blog “Ancient end times timeline” for further information. I like your fascination with the symmetry of numbers and estimation of when Enoch was taken straight to heaven. I do believe though that he did die, he just didn’t go through Thanatos but straight to Hades. See my sermon #14 “Heroes of the faith” in my Hebrews series where I discuss this. You are probably pretty accurate with it being around 5000 years after his “rapture” when the church will be raptured but I don’t really see the significance of adding 5000 years though. That would be 5 days if you use the Biblical formula 1000 years = 1 day theory. I’m not sure that there is anything really to see there except that it is interesting.
I am so glad that Rabbi Yeshua told us that we do not know the day or the hour of His return. He just told us to be ready and occupy until He comes. So while all the playing with dates is amusing to me it doesn’t change my attitude or activities. I just keep praying: ‘mar ana tha (our Lord come).
Hey Grace,
Thanks for your comment. See my blog “No one knows about that day or hour” to get a full explanation on what that statement really means. It basically is an idiom of the day meaning the Jewish New Year’s Day. In other words, Yeshua was saying, “I’m coming back on Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets/Jewish New Year’s Day)” So once we see the Two Witnesses then we will know within a day or two when Jesus will return because the Jewish New Year’s Day was determined by the rising of the first crescent moon and depended on two witnesses to report that to the authorities in the temple.
Much confusion abounds!