Just how old is the earth? Did it evolve over billions of years,
or was it created in seven days about 6,000 years ago?
There are Christians, and others, who hold to a “young Earth”
theory, believing that it could be as “young” as 6,000 years.
Most Christians do not believe this. Another idea out there is that
the Earth is eternal, without beginning or end as a huge chunk of
matter floating in space.
There are scientific estimates of the
age
of the earth, but when you are talking billions of years, or even
millions, it’s hard to have any level of certainty. And is it not
also possible that there could have been previous civilizations that
we do not even know about?
I will admit that I do not know how old the Earth is. I have no
idea, and don’t care all that much really.
But I have studied the Bible for years, and I can say with a fair
amount of certainty, that the Bible does not say how old the Earth
is, or even how long it took to create.
The Bible is a holy book (actually a collection of many books) to
a lot of people, and it contains many answers to many questions. But
there are questions it does not answer. There are times when it just
doesn’t say. The problem arises when people try to make it say
something that it does not really say.
We also need to realize that there are different types of
literature in the Bible. The Psalms, for instance, are poetry, and
should be read as poetry. Also especially in Hebrew writing, which
nearly all of the Old Testament was written in, there were certain
styles of writing and ways of saying things. Often they would tell a
story in a general way, and then repeat it in a more specific way.
This is the case with the creation story. The general creation
story is told in Genesis, and then the story is told about the first
people.
There is also an issue of translation. When Genesis lays out six
days of creation, we see that in English and think it was a week.
That could be, but it is also just as possible that the “days”
are a literary device used to frame the story. The Hebrew word
translated “day” in most English bibles could just as easily be
translated time, or period of time.
So we can say we do not know how long creation took, and therefore
we do not know the age of the Earth. There is nothing wrong in saying
we do not know, and in saying the Bible does not say.
At some point in history, someone wanted to know how old the Earth
was, and they went to the bible and found a way to interpret it to a
certain number of years. We do know that Abraham lived around
2100-2400 b.c., and some scholars say less than that. We know that
Jesus lived about 2000 years ago. Beyond that, we really do not know.
The Bible does give genealogies, so and so begat so and so and
those lists are long. There are a few of them here and there, but a
careful examination shows that they obviously left out some
generations. In Hebrew your ancestors are your ancestors. Whether
that be your father, or your ancestor of 200 years ago, he would be
called your father. Even in the New Testament period, they still
referred to Abraham as Father Abraham. The point is, the genealogies
were used to show a relationship, not to detail every generation from
one generation to the other.
Even so, the genealogies were used to figure out a young date for
the Earth, but a plain reading of the text, and understanding the
language and culture, shows that it really doesn’t say.
I don’t think it helps the idea of credibility of the scriptures
to make it say something it does not say. The point of the Bible is
not to tell us history. The point of the Bible is to show us who God
is. There is some history here and there, but only as it relates to
telling us about God. Whether that history is exactly accurate is not
even relevant to me.
There is a little information about
science,
geography and other areas, but those details are not the point.
As you read the scriptures do not miss the message, or the forest
for the trees.
