Dates for the Creation of Adam and the Birth of Christ

When was Adam created? The question has drawn a remarkable range of answers across the centuries. The 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia counts more than 200 attempts to fix the date, and by 1830 Rev. William Hales had compiled 120 proposed chronologies of biblical dates. The figures run from the long dates of 6984 BC and 6484 BC, set by Alfonso X of Spain in the 1200s, to the latest, 3616 BC, offered by Rabbi Lipman in the seventeenth century. Robert Sungenis lays out the contest of claims and counterclaims and works toward an answer.

Among the notable dates:

Josephus' four dates of 5555, 5481, 5402, 4698

Hales' date of 5411

Vatican Septuagint date of 5270

Venerable Bede's date of 5199

Ussher, Spanheim, Calmet and Blair's date of 4004

Kepler's date of 3993

Melanchthon's date of 3964

Luther's date of 3961

Lightfoot's date of 3960

Cornelius a Lapide's date of 3951