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Prologue:

The Epistle to the Reader – James Ussher’s Annals of the World

 For who does not know history’s first law to be that an author must not dare to tell anything but the truth? And its second that he must be bold to tell the whole truth? That there must be no suggestion of partiality anywhere in his writings? Nor of malice? {*Cicero, De Oratore, l. 2. c. 15. 3:243,254}

Censorinus dedicated the book, De Die Natali, to Quintus Caerellius on his birthday in 238 AD. The first part dealt with human life and its origins and the second part dealt with time and its divisions. In his preface he wrote: {Censorinus, De Die Natali, l. 1. c. 20.}

 If the origin of the world had been known to man, I would have started there.

A little later, speaking of this time: {Censorinus, De Die Natali, l. 1. c. 21.}

 Whether time had a beginning or whether it always was, the exact number of years cannot be known.

Therefore Ptolemy, from his book Astronomical Calculations, concerning the creation and history of the world, stated that this is beyond the knowledge of man: {Ptolemy, Great Syntaxis, l. 3.}

 To find the details of the history of the whole world or such an immense period of time, I think is beyond us who desire to learn and know the truth.

Julius Maternus Firmicus, in his discourse on birthdays, stated concerning the creation of the world (as received from Aesculapius and Anubis): {Julius Maternus Firmicus, l. 3. c. 2.}

 That was not the creation of the world. Nor, indeed, did the world have any certain day for its beginning. Nor was there anything existing at the time when the world was formed by the wisdom of the divine understanding and provident deity. Nor could man in his human frailty so far extend himself, that he could easily conceive or unfold the world’s origin.

It is not strange that the heathen, who are totally ignorant of the Holy Bible, should despair of ever attaining to the knowledge of the world’s beginnings. Even among Christians, that most renowned chronographer Dionysius Petavius, when asked his opinion concerning the creation of the world and the number of years from creation down to us, made this disclaimer: {Petavius, De Doctrina Temporum, l. 9. c. 2.}

 The number of years from the beginning of the world to our time cannot be known, nor in any way found out, without divine revelation. 

Philastrius Brixiensis disagreed with him and called it heresy: {Philastrius, De Heres., c. 6. p. 63.}

 To know the number of the years from the creation of the world is uncertain and men do not know the time of it.

Lactantius Firmianus made this bold assertion: {*Lactantius, Divine Institutions, l. 7. c. 14. 7:211}

 We who are trained by the Holy Scriptures in the knowledge of truth, do know both the beginning and the end of the world.

Bold, because whatever may have happened in the past {#Ac 1:7 Mt 24:36}, we are taught that the Father has reserved the knowledge of things future to himself. Nor is there any mortal to whom the whole period of time is known. Even the son of Sirach is thought to say:

 Who can number the sands of the sea, and the drops of rain and the days of eternity? {#/ Apc Sir 1:2}

When Nicolaus Lyranus was thought to have been speaking of history, (as others interpret it here and in his book {Lyranus, Days of Eternity, c. 18. s. 11.}), he drew this erroneous conclusion: he thought that from the beginning of the world, time was never determined certainly and precisely by any man.

The first Christian writer (that I have known of) who attempted to calculate the age of the world from the Holy Bible was Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch. Concerning this whole account, he stated: {*Theophilus, Ad Autolycum, l. 3. c. 26. 2:119}

 All times and years are made known to those who are willing to obey the truth.

But concerning the exactness of this calculation he later stated:

 And haply we may not be able to give an exact account of every year, because in the Holy Scriptures there is no mention of the precise number of months and days.

The Scriptures normally note only entire years and not the days and months in each instance. Hence, summing the years may give an inaccurate total because the partial years were not included.

Grant this one thing, (and this is a most reasonable assumption) that the holy writers had this very purpose in mind when recording the years of the world in their various places with such diligence. They sought to reveal to us the history of the world that otherwise no one could know. This, I say, being granted, we affirm that the Holy Spirit has anticipated this doubt. He has started and ended each of the periods on which a chronological reckoning of time depends, and added the very month and day. For example, the Israelites left Egypt on the fifteenth day of the first month. {#Nu 33:3}. In the 480th year after their exodus, in the second month on the second day, Solomon began to build the temple. {#1Ki 6:1}. The months and days given for the start and end of the period show that eleven months and fourteen days are to be taken away. The period is not 480 whole years, but only 479 years and 16 days. {#2Ch 3:2}

David Paraeus stated:

 Those who promise to give us an exact astronomical table of time, from the creation to Christ, seem to me more worthy of encouragement than praise, in that they attempt a thing beyond human capacity.

He was among the most recent of our writers who calculated the number of the years to Christ’s time from the Holy Scriptures. Therefore, he abandoned astronomical calculations and used the civil time of the Hebrews, Egyptians and Persians as the only way to do this accurately.

But if I have any understanding in this matter, it does not matter what rule we use to measure the passing of time, as long as it starts and ends with a certain number of days. Anyone could, with David Paraeus, by some equal measure of years, define the time between the foundation of the world and Christ’s time. Also it would be very easy without the help of any astronomical table, to set down how many years happened during that interval. The passing of time in any civil year from a season to the same season again is simply a natural astronomical or tropical year.

Anyone can do this who is well versed in the knowledge of sacred and secular history, of astronomical calculations and of the old Hebrew calendar. If he should apply himself to these difficult studies, it is not impossible for him to determine not only the number of years but even the days from the creation of the world. Using backward calculations, Basil the Great told us we may determine the first day of the world: {*Basil, Hexaemeron, Homily 1. c. 6. 8:55}

 You may indeed learn the very time when the foundation of the world was laid. If you return from this present time to former ages, you may endeavour studiously to determine the day of the world’s origin. Hence you will find when time began.

Historically, various countries have used different methods of calculating time and years. It is necessary that some common and known standard be used to which these may be reconciled. The Julian years and months are most suitable to the common collation of times. These start on midnight, January 1, AD. Using three cycles, every year is uniquely identified. These cycles are:

a) the Roman indiction {a} of fifteen years,

b) the cycle of the moon {b}, or golden number of nineteen years

c) the solar cycle {c} (the index of Sunday or Pascal days) of twenty-eight years.

It is known that the year 1650 AD. is identified with the numbers of three in the Roman indiction, seventeen in the lunar cycle and seven in the solar cycle. (I do not say that of the year of the birth of Christ, which is still disputed among the learned.)

Since our Christian period comes long after the creation of the world, counting years backwards is difficult and error prone. There is a better way. Modern chronologers have extrapolated these three cycles backwards to the year when all the cycles would start at one on the 1st of January. This creates an artificial epoch 7980 years long based on the product of the three cycles multiplied together.

Lunar Cycle                    19 Years

Solar Cycle                    28 Years

Years of Indiction             15 Years

Total 19 times 28 times 15 equals 7980 Years

I think this was first noted by Robert Lotharing, Bishop of Hereford, in England. Five hundred years later Joseph Scaliger adapted this to chronological use and called it by the name of the Julian Period (after his father), because it extended the cycle of Julian years back in time and forward. The cycle started at noon, January 1, 4713 BC, which is a leap year. Here the lunar cycle is one, the solar cycle is one and the indiction cycle is also one. Hence 1 AD is the year 4714 of the Julian period and is identified by the Roman indiction of four, lunar cycle of two and the solar cycle of ten.

Moreover, we find that the years of our forefathers, the years of the ancient Egyptians and Hebrews, were the same length as the Julian year. It consisted of twelve months containing thirty days each. (It cannot be proven that the Hebrews used lunar months before the Babylonian captivity.) Five days were added after the twelfth month each year. Every four years, six days were added after the twelfth month. {*Diod. Sic., l. 1. c. 50. s. 2. 1:177} {*Strabo, l. 17. c. 1. s. 46. 8:125} {*Strabo, l. 17. c. 1. s. 29. 8:85} {*Herodotus, l. 2. c. 4. 1:279} {#Ge 7:11,24 8:3-5,13,14} I have noted the continual passing of these years as recorded in the Bible. Hence the end of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign and the beginning of his son Evilmerodach’s reign was in the 3442nd year of the world. (3442 AM) By collation of Chaldean history and the astronomical cannon it was in the 185th year of Nabonassar. This was 562 BC or 4152 JP (Julian Period). From this I deduced that the creation of the world happened in the beginning of the autumn of 710 JP or 4004 BC. {d} Using astronomical tables, I determined the first Sunday after the autumnal equinox for the year 710 JP or 4004 BC was October 23rd of that year. I ignored the stopping of the sun in the days of Joshua and the going back of it in the days of Hezekiah. {See note on 2553c AM. <<319>>} {See note on 3291c AM. <<644>>} From thence I concluded that the preceding evening of October 23rd marks the first day of creation and the start of time.

I ignored the difficulties raised by chronologers, who are occupied by the love of contention, as Basil noted. Hence, I deduce that the time from the creation until midnight, January 1, 1 AD was 4003 years, seventy days and six hours. Also, based on the death of Herod the Great, I concluded that the birth of our Saviour was four full years before January 1, 1 AD. According to our calculations, the building of Solomon’s temple was finished in the 3000th year of the world. In the 4000th year of the world, Mary gave birth to Christ {#Lu 2:6} (of whom the temple was a type). {#Joh 2:21} Hence, Christ was born in the fall of 5 BC not 1 AD. {e}

But these things, (which I note at the present) God willing, shall be more fully explained in our Sacred Chronology. This I intend to write with a Treatise of the Primitive Years and the Calendar of the Ancient Hebrews. In the meantime I thought it best to publish the Annals of the Old Testament. Based on this foundation, I included a chronicle of all the foreign affairs that happened in Asia and Egypt. These include events before the beginning of the Olympiads and matters relating to Greece and Rome and other areas.

In doing the sacred history, I have followed the translation of Janius and Tremellius, using their Hebraisms and the information from their work. In doing the secular history, I have noted the writings of their ancient authors or the best translation of their works from the Greek. In particular I used James Dalechamp’s translation of Athenaeus. Although in noting the chapters, I followed the edition of Natalis Comitis. (The modern editions of Athenaeus has deleted the chapters. Editor.) From these I have written this history, using material from Codomanes, Capellus, Emmias, Pezelius, Eberus, Salianus or any other chronologer which I had. However, I always referred to the original authors and did most of my work directly from their writings and not from second-hand sources. Since my purpose was to create an accurate chronology, I may not have followed the exact wording of these writers in every case, but I have preserved the intent of their writings.

Of the many historians who lived before Julius Caesar, the passing of time leaves only four of note-Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon and Polybius. The last one is poor and inaccurate in many places. These I esteemed the most authentic for their antiquity. I used them to correct the frequent errors in the chronology of Diodorus Siculus. However, in the matters that related to Alexander the Great, they are silent. For this period, I also followed not only Diodorus but Curtius and Arrian to try to determine the history of that period.

I used the following abbreviations:

AD-Years from the start of the Christian era.

AM-Years of the world from creation.

BC-Years before the Christian era.

JP-Julian Year starting at January 1, 4713 BC.

NK-Northern Kingdom of Israel.

SK-Southern Kingdom of Israel.

After the year denoted by AM, one of four letters may be affixed.

a-Autumn

b-Winter

c-Spring

d-Summer

Other things the prudent reader will figure out for himself. I wish you the enjoyment of these endeavours and bid you farewell. London, the 13th of the Calends of July (June 19th), according to the Julian period, in the 1650th year of the Christian era, from the true nativity of our Lord and Saviour, the 1654th year.

Explanatory Notes by the Editor

{a} Dictionary Definition of Roman Indiction.

In chronology, a cycle of fifteen years instituted by Constantine the Great; originally, a period of taxation. Constantine, having reduced the time which the Romans were obliged to serve in the army to fifteen years, imposed a tax or tribute at the end of the term to pay the troops who were discharged. This practice introduced the keeping of accounts by this period. However as it is said, in honour of the great victory of Constantine over Mezentius, Sept. 24, 312 AD, by which Christianity was more firmly established, the council of Nice ordained that accounts of years should no more be kept by Olympiads, but that the indiction should be used as the point from which to reckon the date of the years. This was begun January 1, 313 AD. Johnson Encyclopaedia

Taken from the definition of Indiction in Noah Webster’s First Edition of an American Dictionary of the English Language, Republished 1989, by the Foundation for American Christian Education, California. (The dictionary was first published in 1828.)

{b} Lunar Cycle

The lunar cycle consists of nineteen years or 235 complete orbits of the moon around the earth. This differs from nineteen years of 365.25 days each, by approximately one and a half hours. On the first year of the next cycle of nineteen years, the new moon would again be on the first of January.

{c} Solar Cycle

The solar cycle consists of twenty-eight years. At the start of each new cycle every day and month of the year would correspond exactly to the days and months of the first year of the previous cycle.

{d} Time of Creation

Since the Jews used to start their year in the autumn, this is not an unreasonable assumption. Also the biblical pattern of evening and morning seems to apply to years as well as days. First the dark months of autumn and winter and then the bright months of spring and summer.

{e} The Christian Era

    The following is quoted from The Wonders of Bible Chronology.

The Christian Era should properly begin with the year Christ was born; and in devising it, the intention was to have it begin with that year. By the Christian Era is meant the system upon which calendars are constructed and by which historical events are now dated in practically all the civilised world. But the originator of the system made a miscalculation as to the year (in the calendar then in use) in which Christ was born, as the result of which the year 1 AD was fixed four years too late. In other words, the Lord Jesus was four years old in the year 1 AD.

The mistake came about in this way: The Christian Era (that is the scheme of dates beginning 1 AD) was not devised until 532 AD. Its inventor, or contriver, was a monk named Dionysius Exiguus. At that time the system of dates in common use began from the era of the Emperor Diocletian, 284 AD. Exiguus was not willing to connect his system of dates with the name of that infamous tyrant and persecutor. Therefore, he conceived the idea of connecting his system with and dating all its events from the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. His reason for wishing to do this was, as he wrote to Bishop Petronius, to the end that the commencement of our hope might be better known to us and that the cause of man’s restoration, namely, our Redeemer’s passion, might appear with clearer evidence.

For the carrying out of this excellent plan, it was necessary to fix the date of the Incarnation in the terms of the chronological systems then in vogue. The Romans dated the beginning of their history from the supposed date of the founding of the city ( ab urbe condita or AUC as usually abbreviated). Dionysius Exiguus calculated that the year of our Lord’s birth was 753 AUC. He made his equivalence of dates from Luke, {#Lu 3:1} Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar etc., at which time Christ was thirty years of age according to Luke. {#Lu 3:23} But it was ascertained later that a mistake of four years had been made; for it clearly appears by Matthew {#Mt 2:1} that Christ was born before the death of Herod, who died in 749 AUC. Tiberius succeeded Augustus, Aug. 19th, 767 AUC. Hence his 15th year would be 779 AUC; and from those facts Dionysius was right in his calculation. But it was discovered in later years that Tiberius began to reign as colleague with Augustus four years before the latter died. Hence, the 15th year mentioned by Luke was four years earlier than was supposed by Dionysius and consequently the birth of Christ was that many years earlier than the date selected by Exiguus, which date has been followed ever since. This must be allowed for in any computation of dates which involves events happening before Christ.

The Wonders of Bible Chronology, Page 84, 85, Philip Mauro, first published 1922, Reprinted by Reiner Publications, Swengel, Pennsylvania.

The Annals of the Old Testament

from the Beginning of the World

“The world’s history is a divine poem of which the history of every nation is a canto and every man a word. Its strains have been pealing along down the centuries, and though there have been mingled discords of warring cannon and dying men, yet to the Christian philosopher and historian-the humble listener-there has been a divine melody running through the song which speaks of hope and halcyon days to come.” {*James A. Garfield, Klopsch-Many Thoughts of Many Minds, 1:131}