Dates for the Creation of Adam and the Birth of Christ

When was Adam created? The question has produced a remarkable tangle of answers. The 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia counts more than 200 attempts to fix the date, and by 1830 the Rev. William Hales had already gathered 120 proposed chronologies from various sources. They vary widely, from the long dates of 6984 BC and 6484 BC set by Alfonso X of Spain in the 1200s, to the earliest of them, 3616 BC, offered by Rabbi Lipman in the seventeenth century.

Between those extremes lie the estimates of many of the great chronologists, including Josephus (who gives four: 5555, 5481, 5402, and 4698), Hales (5411), the Vatican Septuagint (5270), the Venerable Bede (5199), Ussher, Spanheim, Calmet and Blair (4004), Kepler (3993), Melanchthon (3964), Luther (3961), Lightfoot (3960), and Cornelius a Lapide (3951). This study by Robert Sungenis surveys the competing claims and weighs the evidence for dating the creation of Adam and the birth of Christ.