Bible Questions and Answers
Published 06/05/2017
I'm interested in how old the Universe is according to the Bible, and also how old the Earth is? How do you reconcile Bishop Ussher's date of creation of the universe in 4004 BC with the stated age of Homo sapiens at 150,000 years? So when was the universe created? What does the Bible say about this?
Answer:
How old is the universe according to the Bible?
Let's try to figure out how old the Universe is. First of all, a little history. The date of the creation of the Universe, announced by Bishop Ussher, is not reliable. He argued that the universe was created on October 23, 4004 BC. He used dates for the reigns of the kings of Israel that would not be accepted by modern science. This is an oddball story, which for some is the reason why the stated “age” of the universe has now become a kind of almost official “Christian age of the universe.”
Actually, this minor criticism is not relevant to your question. The important thing is, is it really possible to use information from the Old Testament to calculate the age of the Earth? To make this possible, two assumptions must be made:
- there are no “gaps” in biblical genealogy. In other words, when the Old Testament writers called someone the “son” of someone else, we must take it literally, as if each person was born after the previous one;
- “1 day” in Genesis 1 = literally 24 hours.
Both of these assumptions are discussed in detail in Douglas Jacobi's book Genesis, Science and History (available at www.ipibooks.com). The second is discussed in even more detail in my book, Does God Exist? (also available at www.ipibooks.com).
Let me start by discussing the first assumption. It is a well-known Jewish custom among scholars to describe a father's grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and sometimes even more distant descendants as his "sons." There are almost certainly significant gaps in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, for example. In other words, in Matthew 1:14, where it says "Zadok, the father of Akim", we can assume that Akim was a direct male descendant of Zadok, but we cannot assume that he was his son in the sense of the word used in Western culture. I believe we can apply reasonable time limits to the biblical numbers in the countdown to Abraham. However, before Abraham, attempting to apply specific dates to the people of Genesis is not possible. When did Adam live? Assuming he lived (based on my faith in the Bible, I believe he lived), we cannot say exactly when. Almost certainly 4004 BC. is a greatly underestimated period of time when Adam lived.
The second assumption is not so important to answer your question, since Adam was created on the last “day” of creation. However, I believe, based on careful research and consideration of the Hebrew written evidence, and for other reasons (see my book Is There a God?) that the "days" of creation in Genesis are not literal 24-hour days periods. Rather, I believe that these are metaphorical days, periods of time during which God created the Universe and Earth as we see it today. I believe that James Ussher was very wrong in his assumptions.
However, modern scientific estimates of the "age" of modern humans, although probably less than the 150,000 years you quote, still place them at a period too ancient to fit the time reckoning of Adam and Eve, even if we allow that in genealogy there were gaps. How to respond to this fact? I have a few suggestions, but I admit that I don't have a definitive answer.
One possibility is that the gaps in the genealogy in Genesis are actually quite large. In other words, Adam and Eve actually lived tens of thousands of years ago. Another possibility is that God allowed comparatively modern proto-humans to exist, or even “evolve,” but still chose to create the first true humans, Adam and Eve, into whom He breathed His Spirit in the relatively recent past and to whom He gave soul. We cannot experiment and go back in time to give a definite answer to the question of how and when Adam and Eve fit into natural history.
A brief history of the creation of the world by God in Orthodoxy
The teaching of the church on the creation of the Universe is called Shestodayev - from the six days of creation. The first chapters of Genesis describe 6 days of God's work in creating the universe, but interpreters disagree on what time period is meant by the word "day".
The book of Genesis begins with a description of God's magnificent work - creating the world in six days
Some interpret it literally from the Synodal Translation and say that it means 24 hours, others adhere to the interpretation that says that it means a certain period of time - an era or 1000 years. This theory is supported by the original text - it uses a Hebrew word that means “span of time”, which was translated into Russian as “day”.
Thus, one can doubt the literal definition of the time during which God created the Earth. This hypothesis was actively promoted in 1823 by the Anglican priest George Faber. However, this theory is controversial and is not supported by the Church.
The Church Fathers consider the week of creation literally - the creation of the world occurred within 7 ordinary days. This is confirmed by the manuscripts of the saints:
- Irenaeus of Lyon;
- Ephraim the Syrian;
- Basil the Great;
- John of Damascus.
In them, God appears self-sufficient and possessing absolute power, which is why the idea of creating a world out of nothing does not seem absurd.
Important! The only reason for the creation of the world is absolute love, which needs an object. The world was created by Almighty God because of His need to love.
The Lord creates the Universe in six stages, each of which falls on one day of the week. At the same time, a hierarchy of creation is observed - from simple to complex, from common to unique. The Lord does not create a person who hangs out in the desert chaos, but first creates all the conditions for his existence.
The first day
Although the opening verses of the first chapter of Genesis describe the creation of the heavens and the earth, commentators and theologians have assumed that long before this, God created the world of spirits, since they are further referred to as already existing. Understanding the Lord as the Creator of all things presupposes that everything that exists in the world was created by Him, and accordingly the ministering spirits are angels.
On the first day God separated darkness from light, thus He created day and night
Some interpreters believe that the heaven of the first verse is the heaven in which all angels exist.
On the first day, God creates the Universe - the sky, the firmament, light and darkness. At the same time, the world looked different from how a person imagined it today or previously; it was not equipped, had nothing, was not covered with forests and mountains. God creates something definite out of chaos and calls it earth. But it is empty and in darkness - it is the abyss. Therefore, the Lord separates light and darkness.
Verse two indicates that the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. In the first chapter of John, the apostle writes about Christ as the Word by whom all things were created, taking this into account, we can say that the entire Trinity took part in the process of creation - God the Father created everything with the Son the Word and the Spirit of God was there.
It is worth noting that there is no indication of the creation of water; accordingly, it can be assumed that initially water is hidden under the indicated “earth”.
Second day
After the creation of the world, the Lord divided the water into two parts - into the seas and into the water that was above the sky. Interpreters have two versions regarding the last statement:
- This refers to water that is in the atmosphere.
- This refers to the dome of water that many claim covered the planet before the Flood. There is confirmation of this in the text of the psalms and there is scientific evidence. The water dome created a greenhouse effect and ensured the early tropical climate proven by scientists in the Arctic and Antarctica, as well as the onset of the ice age after the flood.
The second version finds confirmation in the text of the psalms, as well as in the description of the flood (Genesis chapter 7).
On the second day, God created the physical sky - the firmament
Opponents of this hypothesis cite as an example the peculiarities of the Hebrew language, in which the word “firmament” meant prostrate, i.e. something huge, spreading out. Thus, they argue that the word firmament only served as a descriptive synonym for heaven.
Day three
After creating the Universe, day and night, the Creator begins to ennoble the world, as He plans to place man in an environment already prepared for him. Therefore, on the third day He creates dry land in our understanding, a separate continent, the existence of which does not generally contradict the scientific hypothesis about the origin of the world.
Scientists believe that initially there was only one continent on the planet - Pangea, which later split into 6 parts. The words “let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters” (Gen. 1:6) confirm the presence of only one large area of \u200b\u200bland.
In Psalm 32, David admires the wisdom of Jehovah, who created all conditions for man and made the world incredibly beautiful.
Read about David's Psalms:
- Psalm of David 25
- Psalm of David 36
- Psalm of David 67
On the third day, oceans, seas, lakes and rivers, as well as continents and islands were created
In addition to creating land, the Lord also equips it, creating flora, trees, flowers, fruits, making the land convenient for settlement. The church fathers also draw attention to the words “according to their kind” (Gen. 1:11-12), which imply that this was not just a single growth of plants, but an indication that Yahweh immediately established a law according to which the grass and the trees reproduced themselves through seeds.
Day four
The fourth day is devoted to the arrangement of the cosmic Universe. If earlier we find only an instruction to separate light from darkness, then on this day the Lord creates an entire system of time management on the planet - he creates the Sun and stars, which are called upon to illuminate the world in due time. Thus, the celestial bodies have three tasks:
- Illuminate the Earth day and night.
- Help with calculating time.
- Distinguish and form warm and cold seasons on Earth.
On the fourth day, God created the heavenly bodies - the sun, moon and stars
Some scientists seek to discount the words of Scripture by saying that scientific evidence supports the creation of the Earth after the solar system. But in fact, this is only a theory, since man does not have reliable materials that would indicate the exact time of the creation of the Earth and other planets of the solar system.
It is also important to understand that the luminaries were created later than the light and for the reason that man could not make deities out of them, as the pagans did in the Ancient World. There is only one source of light - the Lord God, and He alone must be worshiped and served.
Day five
From this moment on, the first life appears on the planet - God commands the Earth to produce reptiles, birds, fish and animals. The Bible does not contradict science at this point, since animals were created into a world that was already filled with oxygen due to previously created plants.
On the fifth day, the Lord created the first living creatures living in water and flying in the air
In addition, life originates in water, which also confirms the scientific theory of the origin of the Universe. It is worth paying attention to the fact that the Creator again makes the law the reproduction of animals according to their kind, so that they fill the world. And at the same time blesses them.
How old is the Earth and the Universe according to the Bible and what does this mean for Christians?
Another question regarding the age of our Universe came from one of our readers. That's what he asks.
I just watched a video and would like to ask you (I have never delved deeply into this question before). Does it matter to a Christian how old the Universe and the Earth are?
Answer:
The author of this video suggests that if we don't believe the 6000 year version, then we don't trust the book of Genesis, we don't believe in fallen humanity or that we need a Savior, we don't believe in God's plan for marriage, and we don't consider the Bible an authoritative source. and do not take Genesis seriously. All of these statements are patently false. He also says that if you believe in the existence of evolution, then you cannot believe the Gospel or the Bible. Again, this is absolutely false.
I believe in the Book of Genesis. I believe in Adam and Eve. I believe in the Fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden. I believe all of these things, but I do not believe that Genesis chapter one should be interpreted to mean that the earth is literally 6000 years old according to the Bible. The assumption that only those who believe in a young earth (young age of the earth) are true Christians is false. This is disrespectful to the many believers who believe in the gospel, the inspiration of the Bible, and the historical nature of Genesis, but do not take the time scale of Genesis 1 literally. My life, for example, proves that all of this person's assumptions are false.
No, this is not a substantive claim, and this recording does not prove any of this person's claims. Simply put, some truths do not make them completely truthful. This man does not provide any evidence that believing in the process of evolution means that we cannot believe the Bible. His argument contains logical errors. You shouldn't take it seriously.
For most people, the age of the earth and such things are simply not important. For the adults who come to us, perhaps more than 80% will never have a problem with the question of the age of the Earth. However, our youth are almost certainly going to think about it and for some it can be a devastating issue. Thus, we must highlight this issue for young people. The reason is that if they hear something in their home or in church that is very different from what they hear in the science lab, it very often creates problems. For people who are trained in science and who hear the Christian claim that the earth is several thousand years old and that this claim is “scientific”, this will be a huge stumbling block.
The beginning of time
Lemaitre, unfortunately, was never able to find out what kind of praat it was, which served as the starting point for the Universe. Modern scientists also still doubt it, but they tried to give it a more scientific name that could at least explain something - the singularity. This is a one-of-a-kind point, infinitely small, dense and hot, which “gave birth” to our entire world. Spacetime, which did not exist before the Big Bang, according to the theory, escaped from the singularity and began to expand at an incredible speed, about a hundred billion times the speed of light.
Birth of the Universe
Simply put, the Universe appeared instantly. From an infinitely small nothing came an infinitely big everything. But during this billionth of a second, so many different processes occurred that they were even given a separate name - the era of inflation.
Before inflation, the emergence and separation of fundamental forces, the separation of gravity, took place. And even earlier - the appearance of the first elementary particles, which launched all these processes. But how exactly did they appear, and who “detonated” the singularity to make it happen? What happened between the beginning and the appearance of the first quantum processes? What happened before the beginning and why did it even happen? The Big Bang theory does not provide answers to these questions and is unlikely to ever provide answers. This period is also called the “act of creation,” meaning that the button on the detonator was pressed by the same demiurge.
Biblical reason for historical events
Causes and effects:
- The Persian Empire (Cyrus) was necessary to liberate Jerusalem
- A. Macedonian was necessary for the Hellenization of the East for the subsequent spread of Christianity, and died untimely because he tried to make Babylon the capital of his empire, but Babylon was doomed by God to destruction due to the destruction of Jerusalem
- Rome arose in 753. like the new Judea, captured at this time by Assyria
Igor Garshin, E-mail: [email protected] , URL: . Up: Mythology
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Materials for the formation of the Universe
Our entire universe consists of elementary particles. Planets, stars, you and me - everything. They were something like bricks for building the Universe, and today they still continue to build it.
- Neutrino.
It is believed that neutrinos were among the first particles to appear in the world. They have no charge and are practically not burdened with mass, which is why they are called the lightest. These particles weigh so little that their mass is always neglected. - Neutron.
This is the heaviest particle as opposed to the neutrino. It also has no charge. According to its characteristics, a neutron is very similar to a proton and can even transform into it. - Proton.
It has a positive charge and is found in large quantities in solar radiation. It consists almost entirely of these particles. - Electron.
Second in mass after neutrinos. Negative charge. The first particle discovered by man. - Photon.
Constantly in motion at the speed of light, he is its carrier.
Formation of the Universe
Electrons, protons and neutrons gather into atoms
.
The name of the particle means “indivisible”, since previously it was believed that nothing could be smaller than it. Among other things, there are fundamental particles: quarks
,
leptons
and
bosons
.
So where is the truth?
The above assumption (constancy of the rate of radioactive decay at all times and under any conditions) can be accepted or not accepted - there can be no prohibition here. However, science has educated itself in such a way that an unprovable postulate that has received universal tacit scientific consent is immediately elevated to the rank of truth. So much so that it is not questioned by anyone in science at all - it is taken for granted. So, if we accept that the rate of radioactive decay of elements (and for scientific rigor, their half-life) is not a constant, but changes over geological time and/or under the influence of deep conditions, then nothing remains of specific numbers of “absolute age”. Their value can be any, depending on the direction and rate of change of this “constant”. And the parameters of such a change in geological times and in the depths of the earth, we emphasize once again, are unknown to anyone and will never become known.
It should be clear to an unbiased view that geochronology, at best, can only claim a relative order of its definitions. That is, that a rock estimated at 1 billion years old is older than another, which is 500 million years old, and a rock with an age of 100 million years is even younger. That's all that can be taken from geochronology in the grandest sense.
So, absolute geochronological ages expressed in years claim to be true only for one model of the Earth - the one in which the half-life period is truly constant. But there are countless different models - different in terms of radioactive decay rates - that can be drawn. And among them there will definitely be those who will fully correspond to the chronology of the Torah.[6] But which of these models is the true one is unknown to anyone in our world. Science is unable to answer this.
All of the above does not mean that absolute age figures in scientific and geological publications should be rejected out of hand. They can be accepted and used, but understanding their convention - these are not the years of the Earth’s real revolution around the Sun, but some conventional geochronological units that will correspond to real years only in one single model of the Earth from their countless number. So, in reality, these are just some conventional units that science, for some of its own reasons, wants to designate as “years”, “summers”. Well, for us they can pass under the code name “geological summers” or, even longer, but more precisely, “geochronological summers”.
