6000 years

I did a count myself a month or two ago and came up with 6000 years. I started after watching a video about the 6000 year count on youtube, got confused at part of it and so did it myself.

Adam to the flood: 1656 years

This count begins with Adam being 130 years old when his son Seth was born. I don't know if Adam's age is reckoned from the day he was created or the day he was removed from the garden of Eden after the fall. Nevertheless, here is what we're given in scripture: This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created. And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. (Genesis 5:1-3)

I added up all of the descendants given on up to the time of the flood, adjusting to add the time between Noah's birth and the flood: Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth. (Gen. 7:6)

+ 2 years

This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood. (Genesis 11:10)

Arphaxad to Abram: 350 years

This one was a little tricky. Scripture says: Now Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. (Gen. 11:26) Assuming Abram was born first, I originally added 70 years to the count to come up with 1948 and what felt astonishing: 1948 years from the 1st Adam to Abraham, the father of Israel. However, I was wrong. Through a conversation with someone as interested in this as I (on YouTube, no less) I realized that Abram must not be the first son...but the second or last. Acts 7:2-4 tells us: “...The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’ Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.”

Then, going back to Genesis, we read: And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran. (Gen. 11:31-32)

Now the Lord had said [past tense] to Abram:

“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. (Gen. 12:1-4)

So we see that Terah died at 205, and once he died, Abram departed from the land at age 75. This leaves Terah at 130 years old when Abram was born.

As the YouTube commenter wrote, God often chose the second or lesser to become the greater. He chose Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, Joseph over his brothers, David over his brothers, Shem over his brothers, and so forth. So it fits that Abram was not the first son as previously supposed, and the math adds up this way.

Abram to covenant: 99 years

So going back to the count of Terah being 130 year old at Abram's birth, the count turns to events rather than births.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” (Gen. 17:1-8)

From Abraham's covenant to the Exodus & the Law: 430 years

Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ. And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. (Galatians 3:16-17)

Exodus & the Law to beginning construction of the First Temple: 480 years

And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord. (1 Kings 6:1)

The *fourth year* of Solomon's reign to the beginning of our calendar: 966 years

This is one of the questionable figures, because history offers conflicting dates as to when King Solomon began his reign. Some say 970 BC, others put it in the 800s BC. Also, what determines BC (before the birth of Christ) and the start of our own calendar is a bit nebulous. Some say Christ was born anywhere from 3-4 BC and even earlier. At any rate, I'm calculating based on what we readily have available to go on, which is the beginning of our calendar.

+ 2017 (this current year)

This brings us to 6000 years exactly.

It almost feels too simple to me, but I find joy in that, too, and further confirmation of the unique times we're in.