Ussher chronology

The Ussher - Lightfoot Calendar is a chronology that goes back to a annalistisches work of James Ussher of the year 1650. He tried it, among other things, to derive the date of creation to the Bible, and determined this Sunday, 23 October 4004 BC

Classification

Ussher's work, the Annales veteris testamenti, a prima mundi origine deducti ( Annals of the Old Testament, deduced from the earliest beginnings of the world), was his contribution to the long-running theological debate regarding the age of the Earth. This was for centuries a major concern of many Christian scholars. The proposed Ussher year 4004 BC was not significantly different from the estimates Venerable Bede ' ( 3952 BC) or Scaliger ( 3950 BC). There was a widespread assumption that the possible period of the existence of the earth amounted to 6000 years - 4000 years before the birth of Christ and 2000 years later, corresponding to the six days of creation, on the grounds that with the Lord one day is as thousand years and a thousand years as one day ( 2 Peter 3:8).

Although Ussher's date may seem unusual from today's perspective, it was so pretty at the very of the scholars of his time anyway already accepted range. In fact, John Lightfoot was hired by the University of Cambridge in 1644 already very similar calculations and published, the result was consistent with the Ussher - but in addition to the date he also determined the time:

The name Ussher and Lightfoot are therefore usually mentioned in the context, in recognition of their common "discovery" of the creation date.

1728 Sir Isaac Newton published new chronological calculations (The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended ), who tried to bring the classic chronology with astronomical data in accordance. He came to the conclusion that the world is 534 years younger than calculated with the Ussher.

Ussher's methodology

The narrow range of the estimates scholar like Ussher stemmed from the calculation of creation date essentially of a uniform methodology. This was based on the use of the Bible as the most important basis. Since the Bible but had been compiled from sources of different origins over the centuries, in different versions and with longer time gaps, it was not possible to perform a simple summation of biblical age and data. In an article on Ussher's calendar differs John Barr ( see references at the end) three different time periods, had to examine Ussher:

• Early period ( Creation to Solomon ): The apparently simplest section because the Bible contains a continuous sequence male lineage from Adam to Solomon, along with the age of the individuals. However, not all versions of the Bible the same ages: thus, they are much more about in the Septuagint, which leads to a more than 1000 years further back in time of creation. Ussher solved this problem by instead resorted to the Hebrew Bible.
• Early age of kings (Solomon to the destruction of the Temple and the Babylonian exile ): The descent sequence is interrupted here, only the duration of the reign of kings is recorded, however, is complicated by a number of overlaps and ambiguities. Ussher had to bring here the biblical record with known historical data from other people and rulers in conjunction to produce a continuous temporal sequence can.
• Late Age of Kings (Ezra and Nehemiah to the birth of Jesus): Here About the Bible provides no information at all. Ussher and his colleagues therefore had to try to link any known event of this period with a historically datable event of other cultures, such as by Chaldeans, Persians and Romans. For example, could the death of the Chaldean King Nebuchadnezzar II, who took Jerusalem in 586 BC, to be brought into line with the 37th year of the exile of Jehoiachin (2 Kings 25:27 ).

Using this methodology, it was Ussher possible to determine without further adjustments, the creation date to around the year 4000 BC. He moved it back to 4004 BC, to account for an error that Dionysius Exiguus was undermined, the founder of the Christian era. The year of death of Herod was determined to 4 BC, so that Jesus could not have been born later. His birth therefore had somewhere between 37 BC, the year in which Herod gained control of Jerusalem, and 4 are BC. Ultimately, Ussher concluded, the birth year of Christ must have been 4 BC.

The time of year of the creation had taken place, was the subject of considerable theological debate on Ussher's time. Many scholars have suggested that it was in the spring, the beginning of the era of Babylonians, Chaldeans, and other cultures. Others, including Ussher, thought it more likely that the time had lain in the fall, mainly because falls into this season, the beginning of the Jewish year.

Ussher bordered the date further by heranzog the Jewish calendar and put the creation date and time on the first Sunday after the autumn equinox. The day of the week, he headed out of the six days of creation and the seventh day, rested on the God forth. The rest day is in the Jewish tradition of Saturday, therefore had the creation began on Sunday. Today's Date equinox is much earlier (usually 23 September ) as the Ussher; this was due to inaccuracies of the Julian calendar forth, calculated for the Ussher that they verschöben to thirty days the date of the equinox backwards.

Ussher's chronology, from today's point of view

It is a coincidence that Ussher's chronology to date is relatively well known, while those who came from Scaliger, Beda and other into oblivion. Some fifty years after Ussher's death began to associate its chronology the annotated editions of the highly influential Bible Translation King James Bible. On the first page of Genesis Ussher's creation date was recorded 4004 BC, so this was as it were established as a canonical estimate of the Bible. (In fact, Ussher's Annales likely to circumferentially support only about one-sixth of the Bible. ) Also in the Scofield Bible chronology was included. In newer versions of the Bible they are missing, but there are still numerous issues of the annotated King James Bible in circulation.

Ussher's work is an example of a belief become, according to the Bible is literally to understand. However, the adoption of such a short world age contradicts the observations and findings in numerous fields of science. Five years after Ussher's thesis expressed about Isaac de La Peyrere the assumption that only the human history must be older than 4000 years, which ( as the findings of certain tools ) was supported by early geological hypotheses. La Peyrere but had to withdraw in the face of the Inquisition his theses, where his book was publicly burned in Paris.

Was doubted in full a few thousand year old earth geologists of the 19th century, who realized that the expiry of the geological processes that determined the present shape of the earth must have been many millions of years necessary. Even Darwin's evolutionary theory pointed to lengthy development process.

Nevertheless, there are still people who rely on Ussher's Annales, to prove their belief that the earth is actually about 6000 years old. These include the young-earth creationists.