Image from the Seven C’s Timeline Poster
Timeline for the Flood
So when exactly was the Flood? There are two possible ways of calculating the date. David Wright, AiG–U.S., explains.
I can find info on the flood but I am looking for good estimation fixing the date of the flood.
So when exactly was the Flood?
For an accurate chronology on the Bible, including the time of the Flood, I highly recommend The Annals of the World by James Ussher, Adam’s Chart of History, Newton’s Revised History of Ancient Kingdoms, and Chronology of the Old Testament by Floyd Nolen Jones.
There are two possible ways of calculating the date. The first is from creation, and the other is from the present. I will focus on the date from creation since the latter would be much more involved. So here we go.
| Event/Person | Passage | Total Time from Creation (years) |
|---|---|---|
| God created everything. | Genesis 1–2 | 0 |
| Adam became the father of Seth at 130. | Genesis 5:3 | 0 + 130 = 130 |
| Seth became the father of Enosh at 105. | Genesis 5:6 | 130 + 105 = 235 |
| Enosh became the father of Kenan at 90. | Genesis 5:9 | 235 + 90 = 325 |
| Cainan became the father of Mahalalel at 70. | Genesis 5:12 | 325 + 70 = 395 |
| Mahalalel became the father of Jared at 65. | Genesis 5:15 | 395 + 65 = 460 |
| Jared became the father of Enoch at 162. | Genesis 5:18 | 460 + 162 = 622 |
| Enoch became the father of Methuselah at 65. | Genesis 5:21 | 622 + 65 = 687 |
| Methuselah became the father of Lamech at 187. | Genesis 5:25 | 687 + 187 = 874 |
| Lamech became the father of Noah at 182. | Genesis 5:28 | 874 + 182 = 1056 |
| The Flood started when Noah was 600. | Genesis 7:6 | 1056 + 600 = 1656 |
As you can see from Table 1, the year in which the Flood came was 1656 AM1 (Anno Mundi – “year of the world”). From the rest of the Old Testament and other well-documented historical events we understand that creation, as calculated by Ussher, was about 4004 BC. So with a little more math we can calculate the second date.
| Calculated BC date for creation: | 4004 |
| Calculated AM date for the Flood: | - 1656 |
| Calculated BC date for the Flood: | 2348 |
| Current Year (minus one2): | + 2011 |
| Number of years since beginning of Flood: | 4359 |
Using the Bible, well-documented historical events, and some math, we find that the Flood began approximately 4,359 years ago in the year 1656 AM or 2348 BC. Some may look for an exact date (i.e., month and day), but we are not given that sort of precision in Scripture.
Footnotes
- Since the Bible does not provide the number of months in the age of each patriarch listed from Adam to Noah, then we could add about five more years to this number. For example, Adam may have been 130 years and 10 months old when Seth was born, and Seth may have been 105 years and four months. On average, there would likely be an additional six months for each generation. The same would be true for the genealogy in Genesis 10.
- We need to subtract one year from this calculation since there was not a “year zero.” The calendar we use jumps from 1 BC to AD 1.
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