Biblical Chronology

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

Biblical chronology deals with the dates of the various events recorded in the Bible. It has to consider how far the Bible contains a chronology at all; to what extent the Sacred Writers aimed at exactness, or were satisfied with round numbers; whether, and to what extent, textual errors and other sources of corruption have crept into the numbers of the Bible; and finally, what relation esxists between the chronologies that have been handed down by neighbouring nations and that which exists in the Bible. "There is no Chronology of the Bible", wrote Silvester de Sacy; and, though this saying is too sweeping, it may be said with truth that for large parts of the Bible there is little to guide us to an exact determination as to when the events related happened. It is not merely that in the matter of numbers the Hebrew text has not always reached us incorrupt (cf. the differences between the Hebrew, Septuagint, and Samaritan Pentateuchs), but the Books of Scripture, moreover, are not a mere history. Some of them, as the Psalms, are in no sense such. And even those that are so, are not written primarily from the point of view of history. Else, e. g., why two parallel histories of the kingdom - Kings and Chronicles? It is because, as Father Cornely says of the Book of Kings ("Introductio", Vol. II, i, p. 284), it had a higher end than the hsitorical, viz., to show the peoples of Isreal and of Juda that it was their wickedness that brought destruction on them, and, by setting before them the proofs of God's mercy, to lead them back to the observance of the Law. On the other hand, the Book of Chronicles (D. V. Paralipomenon) written after the Exile, by setting forth the splendours of ancient ritual, sought to move them to the worthy celebration of Divine worship (op. cit., p. 324). What complicates the earlier periods of Bible history is the fact that there was no recognized era (such as the Dionysian Era of our own times) to reckon events from, though for the Roman world the founding of Rome in the eighth century B. C. gradually began to be recognized as such, and, in later times, among the Jews, the date of the defeat of Nicanor by Seleucus Nicator, and the establishment of the Seleucid domination in Syria (312 B. C.) came to be looked upon as a fixed era.

In this article the data that exist for the formation of a chronology of the Bible will be breifly discussed under the following heads: (1) Creation of the World; (2) Creation of Man; (3) Creation of Man to the Flood; (4) Flood to the Birth of Abraham; (5) Birth of Abraham to the Exodus; (6) Exodus to the building of Solomon's Temple; (7) Building of the Temple to Fall of Jerusalem; (8) Destruction of Jerusalem to Jesus Christ; (9) Date of the Nativity; (10) Beginning of the Ministry; (11) Duration of the Ministry; (12) Date of the Crucifixion; (13) The Acts of the Apostles.

(1) Creation of the World

In an article on Biblical chronology it is hardly necessary in these days to discuss the date of the Creation. At least 200 dates have been suggested, varying from 3483 to 6934 years B. C., all based on the supposition that the Bible enables us to settle the point. But it does nothing of the sort. It was natural that in the early days of the Church, the Fathers, writing with little scientific knowledge, should have had a tendency to explain the days of Genesis, i, as natural days of twenty-four hours. Still, they by no means all did so. Thus the Alexandrian Fathers (St. Clement, Origen, St. Athanasius, and St. Cyril) interpreted the days of Creation ideally, and held that God created all things simultaneously. So did St. Augustine; and St. Thomas Aquinas hesitated between idealism and literalism. The literal interpretation has now been entirely abandoned; and the world is admitted to be of immense antiquity. Professor Dana declares its age to be fifty millions of years; others suggest figures still more startling (cf. Buibert, "In the Beginning"; Molloy, "Geology and Revelation"; Hummelauer, "Genesis"; Hastings, "Dictionary of the Bible"; Mangenot in Vig., "Dict. de la Bible"; Driver, "Genesis". Perhaps the words of Genesis (i, 2): "The earth was void and empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep", refer to the first phase of the Creation, the astronomical, before the geological period began. On such questions we have no Biblical evidence, and the Catholic is quite free to follow the teaching of science.

(2) Creation of Man

The question which this subject suggests is: Can we confine the time that man has existed on earth within the limits usually assigned, i. e. within about 4000 years of the birth of Christ? - The Church does not interfere with the freedom of scientists to examine into this subject and form the best judgment they can with the aid of science. She evidently does not attach decisive influence to the chronology of the Vulgate, the official version of the Western Church, since in the Martyrology for Christmas Day, the creation of Adam is put down in the year 5199 B. C., which is the reading of the Septuagint. It is, however, certain that we cannot confine the years of man's sojourn on earth to that usually set down. But, on the other hand, we are by no means driven to accept the extravagant conclusions of some scientists. As Mangenot says (Vig., Dict. de la Bible, II, 720 sq.), speaking of the right of Catholics to follow the teaching of science: - "certains tenants de l'archéologie préhistorique ont abusé de cette liberté et assigné une antiquité très reculeé à l'humanité" (certain champions of prehistoric archæology have abused this liberty and assigned to the human race an extremely remote antiquity). Thus Guibert writes (op. cit., p. 28): "Haeckel names more than 100,000 years; Burmeister supposed Egypt was peopled more than 72,000 years ago; Draper attributes to European man more than 250,000 years; according to M. Joly, certain geologists accord to the human race 100,000 centuries; and G. de Mortillet shows that man's existence reaches to about 240,000 years." He adds, however: "These numbers have been built up on such arbitrary and fragile bases, that true science could not tolerate them long." In fact, M. Guibert is of opinion that with our present knowledge there is nothing compelling us to extend the existence of man beyond 10,000 years. Such questions as the antiquity of civilization, which had reached a high pitch in Babylonia and Egypt 4000 years B. C., the radical differences of language at the same early period, differences of race (cf. the white, black, and yellow races), which do not seem to have been modified within the historic period, and the remains of human workmanship going back to a very remote antiquity - all these things seem to lead to the conclusion that the existence of man on earth goes back far beyond the traditional 4,000 years. Professor Driver says ("Genesis", p. xxxvi): "Upon the most moderate estimate it cannot be less than 20,000 years."

(3) Creation to the Flood

The period from the Creation to the Flood is measured by the genealogical table of the ten patriarchs in Genesis, v, and Genesis, vii, 6. But the exact meaning of chapter v has not been clearly defined. Critical writers point out that the number ten is a common one amongst ancient peoples in the list of their prehistoric heroes, and that they attribute fabulous lengths to the lives of these men; thus, the Chaldeans reckon for their first ten heroes, who lived in the period from the Creation to the Flood, a space of 432,000 years. This seems to point to some common nucleus of truth or primitive tradition which became distorted and exaggerated in the course of ages. Various explanations have been given of chapter v to explain the short time it seems to allow between the Creation and the Flood. One is that there are lacunæ in it, and, though it is not easy to see how that can be, still it has to be remembered that they exist in St. Matthew (i, 8) in precisely similar circumstances. That there are difficulties about the genealogical table in chapter v, we know; for, as may be seen from the accompanying table, the total number of years in the Hebrew, Samaritan, and Septuagint differs, in the Hebrew, it being 1656, in the Samaritan, 1307, and in the Septuagint, 2242.