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James Ussher "The Annals of the World." James Ussher (sometimes spelled Usher) (4 January 1581–21 March 1656) was Anglican Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625–1656 and a prolific religious scholar who most famously published a chronology which calculated the date of Creation as October 23, 4004 BC. Ussher now concentrated on his research and writing, and returned to the study of chronology and the church fathers. After a 1647 work on the origin of the creeds in 1648 Ussher published a treatise on the calendar. This was a warm-up for his most famous work, the Annales veteris testamenti, a prima mundi origine deducti ("Annals of the Old Testament, deduced from the first origins of the world"), which appeared in 1650 and its continuation, Annalium pars postierior in 1654. In this work, he calculated the date of creation to be nightfall preceding 23 October, 4004 BC. Other scholars calculated their own dates for Creation, such as that by the Cambridge academic, John Lightfoot. The time is frequently misquoted as being 9 a.m., noon or 9 p.m. on 23 October. See the related article on the Ussher chronology for a discussion of its claims and methodology. Ussher's work is sometimes, and often mockingly, associated with Young Earth Creationism, that holds that the universe was created only a few millenia ago. In fact, calculating the year of creation may seem a trivial and slightly eccentric activity to some nowadays with the benefit of geology and palaeontology - the Earth now being dated by the scientific community at around four billion years old, with the universe nine billion years older than that - but at the time it was an important and difficult task which many Renaissance scholars, such as Joseph Justus Scaliger had attempted. Ussher's chronology represents a considerable feat of scholarship. It required the Bible to be firmly anchored in history, which needed a huge depth of learning in ancient history, including the rise of the Persians, Greeks and Romans. Then constructing a biblical chronology required expertise in biblical languages, and in-depth knowledge of the Bible. His account of historical events for which he had multiple sources other than the Bible is usually in close agreement with modern accounts; for example, he places the death of Alexander in 323 BC and that of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. The period of time between the Flood and the Creation depended on the version of the Old Testament that was used: Hebrew (1656 years), Samaritan Pentateuch (1307 years), or the Ethiopic text (2262 years). Ussher favoured the Hebrew version. Annals has recently been republished in modern English. * Notes from Wikipedia.org James Ussher's "The Annals of the World." James Ussher "The Annals of the World." James Ussher "The Annals of the World." 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[ Home ] [ Next ] The Annals of the Old Testament from the Beginning of the World The First Age of the World 1a AM, 710 JP, 4004 BC 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Ge 1:1 This beginning of time, according to our chronology, happened at the start of the evening preceding the 23rd day of October in the year of the Julian calendar, 710. 2. On the first day Ge 1:1-5 of the world, on Sunday, October 23rd, God created the highest heaven and the angels. When he finished, as it were, the roof of this building, he started with the foundation of this wonderful fabric of the world. He fashioned this lower most globe, consisting of the deep and of the earth. Therefore all the choir of angels sang together and magnified his name. Job 38:7 When the earth was without form and void and darkness covered the face of the deep, God created light on the very middle of the first day. God divided this from the darkness and called the one "day" and the other "night". 3. On the second day Ge 1:6-8 (Monday, October 24th) after the firmament or heaven was finished, the waters above were separated from the waters here below enclosing the earth. 4. On the third day Ge 1:9-13 (Tuesday, October 25th) when these waters below ran together into one place, the dry land appeared. From this collection of the waters God made a sea, sending out from here the rivers, which were to return there again. Ec 1:7 He caused the earth to bud and bring forth all kinds of herbs and plants with seeds and fruits. Most importantly, he enriched the garden of Eden with plants, for among them grew the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Ge 2:8,9 5. On the fourth day (Wednesday, October 26th) the sun, the moon and the rest of the stars were created. 6. On the fifth day (Thursday, October 27th) fish and flying birds were created and commanded to multiply and fill the sea and the earth. 7. On the sixth day (Friday, October 28th) the living creatures of the earth were created as well as the creeping creatures. Last of all, man was created after the image of God, which consisted principally in the divine knowledge of the mind, Col 3:10 in the natural and proper sanctity of his will. Eph 4:24 When all living creatures by the divine power were brought before him, Adam gave them their names. Among all of these, he found no one to help him like himself. Lest he should be destitute of a suitable companion, God took a rib out of his side while he slept and fashioned it into a woman. He gave her to him for a wife, establishing by it the law of marriage between them. He blessed them and bade them to be fruitful and multiply. God gave them dominion over all living creatures. God provided a large portion of food and sustenance for them to live on. To conclude, because sin had not yet entered into the world, God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Ge 1:31 8. Now on the seventh day, (Saturday, October 29th) when God had finished his work which he intended, he then rested from all labour. He blessed the seventh day and ordained and consecrated the sabbath Ge 2:2,3 because he rested on it Ex 31:17 and refreshed himself. Nor as yet (for ought appears) had sin entered into the world.
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