If you add up all the years mentioned in the genealogies, and check out few other key verses, you can get a pretty good idea for the date of Creation.

Genesis 5:3 tells us that Adam was 130 when Seth was born.
v6 that Seth was 105 when Enosh was born.
v9 that Enosh was 90 when Kenan was born.
v12 Kenan was 70 when Mahalalel was born.
v15 Mahalalel was 65 when Jared was born.
v18 Jared was 162 when Enoch was born.
v21 that Enoch was 65 when Methuselah was born.
v24 Methuselah was 187 when Lamech was born.
v27 Lamech was 182 when Noah was born.

All up, that is 1056 years from the creation of Adam to the birth of Noah. (And by the way, since Noah was 600 when the flood came, according to Genesis 7:6. So the flood was 1656 years after creation).

Now, depending on how they accounted for the extra months in those calculations, the total might be out by a bit, but only by a few years. But that is going to be pretty close. For the sake of argument, let’s just assume that it’s right.

Now, in Genesis 11 we get some more...
Genesis 11:10 tells us that Arphaxad was born 2 years after the flood when Shem was 100.
So Shem was 98 in the flood (When Noah was 600), so Shem was born when Noah was 502.
Which of course fits in with Genesis 5:32 which told us that AFTER Noah was 500 he had Shem, Ham and Japheth.

v12 that Arphaxad was 35 when Shelah was born.
v14 that Shelah was 30 when Eber was born.
v16 Eber was 34 when Peleg was born. (In whose lifetime the world was divided at the tower of Babel).
v18 that Peleg was 30 when Reu was born.
v20 Reu was 32 when Serug was born.
v22 Serug was 30 when Nahor was born.
v24 Nahor was 29 when Terah was born.

Whew... The genealogies look a bit boring, but this is gold. We are dating creation from them!

That’s another 822 years, so now we have 1878 years from the creation of Adam to the birth of Terah. (Abraham’s father).

Now, Genesis 11:26 tells us that Abram (Abraham) was born AFTER Terah was 70. (not WHEN, but AFTER).
So we need to do some digging for this one...
Genesis 12:4 tells us that Abram was 75 when he left Haran.
Acts 7:4 tells us that Abram left Haran after the death of his father.
And Genesis 11:32 tells us that Terah was 205 when he died in Haran.
So, putting that all together, Terah was at least 130 years old when Abraham was born. (And that would only be the case if Abraham left Haran as soon as his father died. If he stayed around a while, it could have been later.)

So, there is a possible 75 year window, which realistically is probably a 20-30 year window.
For the sake of dating creation, anywhere in that window gives us roughly the same date for creation plus or minus just a few years. So let’s pick 142.
It’s certainly looking like it’s not 100,000 years ago, or millions of years ago!!

In Galatians 3:17 Paulus tells us that the Law was given 430 years after God made his covenant with Abraham.
God first promised to Abraham when he told him to leave Haran, and he was 75 (Genesis 12). Later he changed Abram’s name to Abraham, when he was 99, and promised he would be the father of many nations (Genesis 17). And the verse Paulus might be referring to (which has the word “seed” in it) could be Genesis 22:18 when Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son, when Abraham was probably about 110 or so.
For the purposes of dating the creation, it doesn’t matter too much which one we choose. But for now anyway, let’s choose the first one. When Abraham was 75.

So that would make it 647 years from the birth of Terah to the giving of the Law (on Mt Sinai just after the Exodus).
So the Law was given 2525 years after the creation of Adam.

Almost there.

From archaeological study we know fairly certainly that Solomon came into power in 970BC.
That was his first year. So his 4th year was 967BC.
Now, 1Kings 6:1 tells us that it was 480 years from the Exodus to the 4th year of Solomon’s reign.

So... from Creation to the year Solomon became king was 3001 years. And we can date the Exodus to 1446BC.

And... that dates Creation to 3971BC, plus or minus a few years.
Which was 5988 years ago (in 2017).

Creation was only 6,000 years ago. Maybe not even.

In an attempt to fit the Bible into their scientific beliefs, some Christians argue that the 6 days of Creation were not literal days, maybe billions of years each. Some Christians argue that there was a huge gap of billions of years between the creation of the universe and the creation of Adam.
I don’t believe either of those, I take the Bible literally whenever it makes sense to do so. So when the Bible says it took God 6 literal days to create the universe I take that to mean 6 literal days.
But whatever your view on these things. The arguments on this page prove that the Bible very literally says that Adam was created only about 6,000 years ago. So whatever your other views, you have to accept that as a fact. Mankind has only been here for 6,000 years. Not 600,000 or even 60,000 but only 6,000 years. It looks like some people’s scientific beliefs are wrong.

Feel free to argue about scientific assumptions. But according to the Bible. They’re wrong.
According to the Bible, God created the entire planet and everything in it in 6 days, about 6,000 years ago.


PS: some of the key dates very approximately to make them easier to remember...

The resurrection of Yeshua was almost 2000 years ago.
David and Solomon were kings of Israel about 3000 years ago.
Moses led the exodus about 3500 years ago.
The flood was about 4500 years ago.
Creation was about 6000 years ago.