Does Genesis tell us how old the earth is?
Open up an old Scofield Reference Bible and on the first page of the book of Genesis you’ll see the date given as 4004 B.C. This date comes from the calculations of Bishop James Ussher in his monumental 1658 publication “The Annals of the World.”
Go to a number of Young Earth Creation apologetics websites and you’ll see similar dates given for the age of the world (if not the universe). For instance, at the popular Answers In Genesis site you’ll find an account of how Ussher arrived at the date of 4004 B.C. (along with a general endorsement for the approach as being valid):
For events before this time, Ussher relied solely on data from the Bible to erect his historical framework. He chose the death of King Nebuchadnezzar as a reliable date upon which to anchor all the earlier biblical dates. Working meticulously backward from there, he ended up with his date for creation of October 23, 4004 BC…
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