In the Old Testament
Genesis Timeline (with relation to the Building of Solomon’s Temple)
prepared by David Churchill

How can we relate to our own time the major events recorded in Genesis?  [option: skip the introduction and go straight to the chart]

     Many Bible passages provide key information describing a time-relationship of events to other events — for example, we read of Adam being 130 years old when his son Seth was born; this simple fact is unaffected by whether Seth was his immediate child or a later descendant.  Several passages actually explain in depth how to add and relate this type of facts together.
     Relying upon the Bible as our guide, applying grade-school-level math skills, being aware of passages with estimates or rounded-off numbers, and using the creation as our dating reference, we can reconstruct an unbroken chain of specific events from the creation down to the building of Solomon’s temple.
     It just so happens that Solomon is about as far back as archaeologists can date events with reasonable accuracy (i.e. ±10 to 20 years).  The general consensus is that Solomon began his reign about 970 B.C.E.  Applied to 1 Kings 6:1, this in turn suggests that Solomon began building the temple in 966 B.C.E.  If we apply this estimate as the dating reference for our timeline, we can then visualize this unbroken chain of events in terms of today’s calendar.
     

What can we learn from a timeline of Genesis?

     • We can learn how the major events in Genesis relate to one another in time. This is important because Genesis is written in a topical order rather than a chronological order.

     In our culture, we expect a chronological order to a story.  In other words, we expect a book or movie to reveal the events, people, and subjects of interest as they relate to the time of interest at hand. The author prioritizes his storyline according to time, first dividing the overall theme of the story into large divisions of time, in turn dividing those into medium divisions, progressively creating still smaller units of time, until he is presenting his story through a structured series of “nows.” Common tools such as “flashbacks” (to the past) and “flashforwards” (to the future) either switch our attention to a different time of interest or else reveal information we need to understand a particular “now” of the story.  The storyline guides us from each “now” to the next until the story is completely presented.
     However, the Bible in general has a topical order.  In other words, the events, people, and times of interest are revealed as they relate to the concern or subject of interest at hand.  The “storyline” of the Bible is prioritized according to subject.  The overall theme of the Bible divides into the Old and New Testaments’ themes, which in turn divides into the different books each with its own general topic, progressively dividing into smaller units of subject, until presenting the “story” through a structured pattern of concerns and issues.  (Yes, sometimes… if it is significant in the presenting of a particular concern or issue… a length of chronology may be revealed, but the “story” is still being told in terms of subject rather than of time.)  Depending on which is most appropriate, information needed to understand a particular subject of interest may be revealed at that point, earlier in the Bible, later in the Bible, or some combination thereof.  Often, a particular topic is revealed only partially in one book while other books in the Bible reveal more about that topic.  (Which brings up a good point to remember – to gain a complete understanding of any specific Bible subject, we must read and carefully consider all Bible passages relating to that subject.)  

     • We can learn that the longer lifespans described in Genesis were in normal years just like the shorter lifespans also described.

     Some skeptics of Genesis as factual history insist that the “years” in Genesis genealogies were really just figurative language for a tenth or a twelfth of a normal year.  This definition, they say, “proves” how Adam really only lived to about 93 normal years, Methuselah only about 97 years, and Noah only about 95 years.  Certainly impressive lifespans, they acknowledge, but not centuries long.
     However, nothing in Genesis suggests that the word “year” has different meanings in different passages – other than the reader’s refusal to accept the possibility of those longer lifespans.  Therefore, to be honest and consistent, we must apply the same meaning everywhere we read “year” in Genesis.  So, according to the skeptics’ definition:
          a) Adam’s son Seth became the father of Enosh at age 10 (?) (Gen. 5:3 – genealogy)
          b) Enosh’s son Cainan and grandson Mahalalel became fathers at age 7 (?) and age 6 (?) (Gen. 5:12,15 – genealogy)
          c) Noah’s son Shem and grandson Salah became fathers at age 10 (?) and age 3½ (?) (Gen. 11:10,12 – genealogy)
          d) Abraham was almost 8 (?) when God called him to move his wife and household to Canaan from Haran (Gen. 12:4)
          e) Abraham was “old, well advanced in age” at age 10 (?) and his wife was “passed the age of childbearing” at age 9 (?) when their son Isaac was born (Gen. 17:1,17; 18:10-14; 21:1-7)
          f) Isaac was age 4 (?) when he married Rebecca, and was age 6 (?) when his son Jacob was born (Gen. 25:19-20,26 – genealogy)
          g) Abraham died “in a good old age, an old man and full of years” at 17 (?) and Isaac likewise at 18 (?) (Gen. 25:7-8; 35:28-29)
          h) Jacob had 13 children by his two wives and their two handmaidens in 20 Genesis years, therefore in only 2 normal years (?) (Gen.29:1-30:43; 31:41)
          i) Joseph was not even age 2 (?) when his father Jacob sent him walking alone many miles to fetch his brothers (Gen. 37:2,12-17)
          j) Joseph was age 3 (?) when Pharaoh made him second-in-command of the country of Egypt (Gen. 41:37-46)
     Obviously the skeptics are mistaken and their definition is wrong.  Obviously Genesis makes more sense if we understand each “year” in Genesis as being a normal 365¼-days-long year.

     • We can learn how the major events in Genesis may have influenced each other.

     For example, have you ever wondered how great men of faith such as Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses would have first learned to believe in God?  A accurate timeline of Genesis reveals the most-likely possible answers.
          a) Enoch could have talked with Adam, thus getting knowledge of the creation from a first-hand source.
          b) Noah could have studied under someone (perhaps his father Lamech or grandfather Methuselah) who had studied under Adam or Enoch directly.
          c) Abraham, and his son Isaac, could have talked with Noah’s son Shem for first-hand information about the Great Flood, or else to someone who had studied under Noah or Shem directly (such as Arphaxad, Salah, or Eber).
          d) Jacob was raised by Isaac, and also could have talked with Abraham.
          e) Joseph was raised by Jacob, and also could have talked with Isaac
          f) Moses was born only 60 years after Joseph died and could have known people who personally knew Joseph.
     Amazingly enough, the transmission of faith in God from Adam to Moses could have needed as little as eight people: Adam to Methuselah to Noah to Shem to Isaac to Joseph to (unnamed-to-us person) to Moses.
     

What makes this particular timeline presentation special?

     Many people since the time of Christ and before have visualized on paper a chronology of key events and people in the Bible.  I’m sure that you have probably already come across some efforts older than mine, and perhaps a few newer as well. In that sense, this particular timeline is hardly original.
     What makes this timeline special, at least for me anyway, is that it is my own effort and that it has helped me in visualizing the Scriptures, especially Genesis.  I did not invent the information presented.  I gleaned it from the Scriptures.  Much of it I harvested myself from its ready location in Genesis.  Some of the facts I searched to find only after I had concluded that God must have had some reason for the precise date-referencing He provides in 1 Kings 6:1.  Still other items and conclusions I did not include as definite until after other people doing their own research had suggested relevant Bible passages which until then I had not considered or had been ignorant.  Especially important to me was that I studied for myself every revelant passage I found or was suggested to me.  I took no one’s math or conclusions for granted.  I did my own calculating of the numbers repeatedly and did my own reasoning repeatedly of how the facts fit together.  I reached my own conclusions and presented them on paper, at first solely for my own benefit, but later on to share with others.  I made a few mistakes in some of the earlier revisions, but at least they were honest and my own mistakes. And at least I corrected every mistake after it came to my attention AND after I was reasonably convinced it was a mistake.
     This presentation is also special because of its unusually precise illustration of the dates.   All other presentations that I remember seeing of the Genesis chronology were lacking somewhat in visual accuracy.  Many were hand-drawn and others were typed with some hand-drawn elements, but all were off-scale in some way.  The challenge stems from the lifespans being so long in early Genesis and then becoming drastically shorter as Genesis continues.   How does one pick a time-scale that keeps both the long lifespans and the shorter lifespans in accurate perspective and still be able to pinpoint significant events that were shorter than many years.  When I decided to illustrate my results on paper, I wanted to make the illustration accurate (as much as possible) like the facts.  The first illustration I attempted several years ago on my computer was scaled at 100 years per inch with each event marked within an accuracy of ±10 years.  Its positioning was very accurate and definitely provided a real sense of perspective — it only needed the continuous length-wise direction of four sheets of form-feed paper to print properly.  Thanks to more modern technology, this latest version is much more practical fitting on one page with a scale of 400 years per inch and the same accuracy of ±10 years.
     One of the most encouraging aspects of this learning experience has been the corroboration of my results with the results of others doing similar studies.  As I’ve said, I took no one’s math or conclusions for granted.  Yet I was encouraged to see once again that when different people handle for themselves the same Scriptures in the same reasonable way and with the same honest attitude, they reach the same undeniable conclusions.  I didn’t take their efforts for granted.  They didn’t take my efforts for granted.  But still the results of our efforts agreed.
     Like any worthwhile human effort, this has been a journey of growth with both progress and mistakes along the way.  It has benefited me and I hope it benefits you.
     

To open & print this timeline …
     … clicking here will open the timeline file in a new window in your browser.  The file is a PDF and requires the Acrobat Reader plug-in for your browser to view (If you do not yet have the Adobe Acrobat Reader, you may download it FREE at https://acrobat.adobe.com/us/en/acrobat/pdf-reader.html).  You may print FREE OF CHARGE copies of each page for your personal non-commercial use… likewise as teaching aids in a Bible-study setting.  I designed the file to fit letter-size paper for printing on my color inkjet printer.  I can make NO promises for how it will print on your equipment.
     The first page is the timeline referenced from the date of creation and presents an unbroken chain of key events from creation to the building of Solomon’s temple.  It lists only the events that I have personally confirmed using Scripture to establish their relationships in time to other listed events.   The second page is a corresponding sample presenting the same information referenced to our modern calendar by plugging in a plausible date for Solomon’s reign and working backward toward the creation using the fixed time-relationships illustrated in the first page.  Because of this element of uncertainty in the second page, I personally view the first page as being the more factual.