Science and historyDraft · awaiting advisor review

How old is the earth, according to the Bible?

In short

The Bible never states the earth’s age. Adding up the genealogies in Genesis gives roughly 6,000 years, which many Christians accept, but others read Genesis 1 as not meant to date creation and accept the scientific estimate of about 4.5 billion years. Faithful Christians hold both views.

The Objection

Genesis gives six numbered days, each with evening and morning, and genealogies that state each father’s age when his son was born. Exodus 20:11 grounds the working week in those days. Added together, they give a world about 6,000 years old, as most Jews and Christians assumed for centuries. Reading the days as long ages only became popular after modern geology, so it looks like bending Scripture to fit science rather than letting the text speak.

Put as its strongest advocates would put it.

The Christian Case

Scripture
The Bible opens “In the beginning” without giving a date. A young-earth age is calculated, not stated: it comes from adding the ages in the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 to later biblical chronology.
Historical evidence
Different calculations give different results. Archbishop James Ussher (1650) dated creation to 4004 BC, and the Jewish calendar counts from 3761 BC. The Greek Septuagint has longer ages in these genealogies, adding over a thousand years, and the Byzantine calendar dated creation to 5509 BC.
Scripture
Biblical genealogies sometimes skip generations. Matthew moves from Joram to Uzziah (Ozias), leaving out three kings listed in Chronicles, and Luke includes a Cainan who does not appear in the Hebrew text of Genesis 11. So some argue the Genesis lists may not be complete.
Historical evidence
Geologists date the earth to about 4.54 billion years. They use radiometric dating of meteorites and the oldest rocks and minerals, and several independent methods broadly agree. Most scientists, including many Christians, regard this as well established. Young-earth scientists dispute the assumptions behind these methods.
Christians differ
Young-earth Christians read the days as ordinary days and the earth as thousands of years old. Old-earth Christians read each “day” as an age. Others, such as framework or temple readings, see Genesis 1 as a carefully structured account of God ordering creation, not a timeline. They point to the sun appearing on day four and to “day” covering the whole creation in Genesis 2:4.
Philosophical argument
Many Christians argue that if God is the author of both Scripture and nature, the two cannot finally conflict. Any clash is then between our readings of the Bible and our readings of the evidence, and both kinds of reading can be mistaken. This is an argument about method; it does not settle which reading is right.

Where the Evidence Is Weaker

For old-earth readings: numbered days with “evening and morning” most naturally suggest ordinary days, and these readings became widespread only after geology raised the question. Gaps in the genealogies cannot stretch to billions of years. For young-earth readings: they must hold that many independent dating methods are systematically wrong, which most geologists, Christian geologists included, find very hard to accept.

Arguments to Avoid

Saying “the Bible says the earth is 6,000 years old” as if Scripture states a date rather than leaving one to be calculated.
Mocking Ussher, who was a serious scholar using the best chronology available in his day.
Claiming radiometric dating is simply circular or worthless, which overstates real debates about its assumptions.
Treating Christians who hold a different view of the earth’s age as unfaithful or unscientific.

Read for Yourself

Genesis 1:1–2:3

¹In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. ²And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. ³And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. ⁴And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. ⁵And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. ⁶And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. ⁷And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. ⁸And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. ⁹And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. ¹⁰And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. ¹¹And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. ¹²And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. ¹³And the evening and the morning were the third day. ¹⁴And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: ¹⁵And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. ¹⁶And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. ¹⁷And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, ¹⁸And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. ¹⁹And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. ²⁰And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. ²¹And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. ²²And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. ²³And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. ²⁴And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. ²⁵And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. ²⁶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. ²⁷So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. ²⁸And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. ²⁹And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. ³⁰And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. ³¹And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. ¹Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. ²And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. ³And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Genesis 5:1–32

¹This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; ²Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. ³And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: ⁴And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters: ⁵And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. ⁶And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos: ⁷And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters: ⁸And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died. ⁹And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan: ¹⁰And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters: ¹¹And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died. ¹²And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel: ¹³And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters: ¹⁴And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died. ¹⁵And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared: ¹⁶And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters: ¹⁷And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died. ¹⁸And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch: ¹⁹And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: ²⁰And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died. ²¹And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: ²²And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: ²³And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: ²⁴And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. ²⁵And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech: ²⁶And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters: ²⁷And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died. ²⁸And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: ²⁹And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed. ³⁰And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters: ³¹And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died. ³²And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Exodus 20:8–11

⁸Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: ¹⁰But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: ¹¹For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Psalm 90:1–4