Ussher and the date of Creation
Ussher is best known for his work in biblical
chronology and, more specifically, for his
dating of creation to the 23 rd October,
4004BC. Later writers refined his thesis and
argued that creation occurred at 6.00pm on the
22 nd of October, 4004 BC, but Ussher
eschews giving specific times. His interest lay
not in establishing a specific date but
presenting a framework for the history of
mankind. By using the Bible and
complimentary historical sources he sought to
provide an over-arching view of God's
intervention in history. For Ussher what lay in
the past explained the present and pointed to
the future Second Coming of Christ.
Ussher was not alone in his interest in biblical
chronology. Contemporaries across Europe
followed in the footsteps of Bede in trying to
date the various sections of the Bible, usually
suggesting some slight adaptation of Bede's
date of 3952 BC. This was by no means an
easy task and required a knowledge of several
languages and disciplines for the adept scholar
to make any progress. Ussher's seminal work,
the Annales veteris testamenti, a prima
mundi origine deducta (1650), later translated
as Annals of the Old Testament, deduced from
the first origins of the world (1658), quickly
became a best-seller, providing as it did the
most comprehensive framework then
available.
It was not an easy task. The problem was that
there were significant gaps in the biblical
account. The Old Testament stops in the period
of Ezra and Nehemiah - the 5 th century BC in
Ussher's chronology - so Ussher had to try and
match up events in the Bible to other
chronologies before he reached the safer
territory of the New Testament. Even the
famous succession lists present in the Bible
were sometimes more like riddles than firm
guides to the different generations. He also had
to decide on which sources to use: the Hebrew
Old Testament or the Greek Septuagint. This
wasn't a matter of stylistics but of hard
chronology since the Septuagint added almost
1000 years to the date-line. Likewise, he had
to factor in leap years, co-regencies, and a host
of other minor problems, all of which might
effect his schema.
On the plus side, there were some important
guidelines. The Book of Genesis stated that
God had created the world in six days and
rested on the seventh. Since the Jewish
Sabbath was on a Saturday, it therefore held
that Creation had commenced on a Sunday,
and, in the eyes of contemporaries the
reference to the infamous apple was a clear
sign that God created the world in Autumn
(Ussher narrowed it down to the first Sunday
following the autumnal equinox). The six days
of creation had a heightened significance
because they also provided a template for the
ages of the world, and might also refer to the
three persons of the Trinity. Since 2 Peter 3:8
had stated that 'With the Lord a day is like a
thousand years and a thousand years is like a
day' it was a small step to conclude that 6000
years was the sum total of Creation. The use of
1000 years as a building block in Ussher's
chronology received further impetus from the
frequent references to millenia in the Book of
Revelations.
Millenial markers gave Ussher's account an
added attraction. In his schema the completion
of the Temple in 1004BC came exactly three
thousand years after the creation of the world.
This, in turn, was followed a thousand years
later by the coming of Christ in 4BC (Herod's
death in that year meant that it was the latest
possible date for the birth of Christ). By dating
the birth of Jesus to 4BC Ussher could point to
a neat symmetry, with 4000 years from
Creation to Christ which in turn would be
followed by 2000 years before the Second
Coming. Ussher, while well aware of the
polemical value of such a chronology, was not