Thank you for the question on the age of the Earth and the Gospels, “If the age of the Earth matters to the gospels, is that why the span of the Bible is four thousand years with the last two thousand added on after?”
Here are some thoughts for one’s consideration regarding the age of the Earth and biblical genealogy:
A. God transcends time. There is no past, present or future with God.
B. At the moment of Creation of the Universe, Earth time of 24 hours in a day didn’t exist at the moment of Creation.
C. In the creation of the Garden of Eden and life form, God didn’t depend on the 24 hour day period for life to grow. Trees were grown instantly with age in them. Fish and animals were fully mature in a moment of time. The 24 hour time frame was irrelevant even as man and woman didn’t grow into maturity as a man or woman.
D. The formation of time on Earth began on Day 4 when God made the sun and the moon. Prior to that moment, there was no known time for there was no sun or moon and the absence of higher life form. We must remember that time is different on Mars than on Pluto if one is measuring the rotation of the planets.
E. The formation of humans began the measurement of time as man sees the rising and setting of the sun, the seasons. Genesis 1 says this, “And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day” (NIV).
I believe the days in creation are not 24 hour days, but creative days of God. It is the time period when God designed and completed that action in his timetable. When God said, “Let there be light”, the light shine instantly through space to Earth and beyond. God didn’t wait billions of light years for the light to travel to Earth. It happened in a moment of time which we would measure in light years.
In other words, I suggest that the events that happened during the God’s creative six days are not literal twenty four hour time period. They are viewed as God’s creative activity for each phrase or stage of development for life on Earth. After Adam and Eve came into existence, then human existence began as humans measure days and seasons based on the rotation of the Earth.
The genealogies taken from Luke 3 and Matthew 1 can be viewed from key individuals in Israel’s history: :
- Adam to Abraham
- Abraham to David
- David to Jeconiah
- Jeconiah to Jesus
According to Luke’s record of the genealogy of Mary, there are 75 generations listed consecutive order from Joseph to Adam. In Matthew’s account, there are 42 generations listed consecutively from Abraham to Joseph.
The reconciliation between anthropologists dating of humans and the biblical record is nearly impossible to reconcile for there can’t be millions of years of human development while the biblical record records 75 listed generation. Both can’t be correct.
In my limited understanding to date fossil records especially human fossils based on soil sampling or radiometric dating may be questioned. The soil may be of that age may well be correct, but the finding of the fossil on that bed level stating that it is that old can be questioned. It is like finding some artifact in snow crevice and dating the dropped ice picket to millions of years. It was found in that layer but it doesn’t necessary mean it was present at that time period. That’s just for one’s thought.
Summary: The Earth could be dated to billions of years but the biblical record states that mankind was on earth for 75 generations from Adam to Jesus.
-Kingston