4004BC

Archbishop Ussher of Armagh (Ireland) did some serious academic work in 1650 to work out the date of creation. He compared the then available evidence of Assyrians to create a chronology of known history, and then Biblical evidence to get back to creation in Genesis chapter one. This was a sincere attempt to make sense of known evidence, including the Bible's own chronology of the early patriarchs. His conclusion was that Jesus was born in 4BC, creation was 4000 years earlier on the evening before 23 October 4004 BC, and than King Solomon was at 3000 BC, half way between creation and the present day. We smile today with our knowledge of the great antiquity of the earth and its creatures - but this view was considered true for many years, was taught to me as a child, and is still accepted by some who dismiss evolution and science as fallacy.
This blog is called 4004BCE to ask a range of questions about the Bible and how we view it. I am not a believer, but a critic - but I am not hostile as some are and I genuinely want to know what the Bible writers were really trying to say, even if I then disagree with it.