How Old is Earth According to the Bible?

The age of the earth can be a controversial topic—especially if you’re talking with fellow Christians. Some might say the earth is only thousands of years old (aka “young earth”) while others may believe it’s billions of years old (aka “old earth”). But how old is the earth according to the Bible?

As Christians, we can expect that what we see in nature (God’s creation) will be in harmony with what we read in Scripture (God’s Word; Psalm 19:1–4, Psalm 19:7, Romans 1:20). So why is there such a vast difference in beliefs about the age of the earth? Let’s explore what the Bible and science have to say on the topic.

Is the Bible a Reliable Source for the Age of the Earth?

While Genesis 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” it doesn’t say when this monumental event took place. Fortunately, to help us understand his creation, God has revealed himself to us in two significant ways:

1. Special Revelation: The Bible

The Bible is God’s Word, given through the Holy Spirit—guiding human authors so that Scripture reflects both divine truth and human style. Inerrant in its original writings, it is authoritative in all it affirms and, when rightly interpreted, never contradicts the truths revealed in nature. Scripture reveals God’s character, creation, and saving will in Christ, and provides wise guidance for the issues we face in daily life.

2. General Revelation: Nature

In addition to God’s Word, we have the privilege of witnessing his amazing power, creativity, and meticulous order revealed to us in nature. The natural world reflects God’s glory and allows us to understand more about him, including his character attributes (Romans 1:20). Nature stands as evidence of a creator, similar to how a painting in an art gallery is evidence of an artist.

When we consider the age of the earth from a Christian perspective, it’s important to take both of these revelations seriously. Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Psalm 19:4 says of the heavens, “Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” Psalm 19:4 says, “The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul.”

These verses, among others, remind us that we can trust both Scripture and nature to discover more about God and his creation, including the earth’s age.

These two forms of revelation—the Bible and creation—can be understood through the “two-books” metaphor. God is the author of both the book of Scripture and the “book” of nature. Through these two sources, we can learn about the power, character, and works of God.

What If the Physical Universe Seems in Conflict with the Bible?

The Christian worldview holds that all truth comes from God. However, conflicts and confusion can arise when there seems to be a disconnect between God’s two books (Scripture and nature). It’s especially common for Christians to sense this disconnect when thinking about the age of the earth.

It’s important to keep in mind that neither of these “books” singularly addresses every detail of life. For example, we can’t observe the human soul scientifically, but we can read about it in Scripture.

Similarly, the Bible doesn’t explicitly say how old the earth is, mention bacteria, or describe galaxies—but we can learn of these things through science.

Each book—Scripture and nature—should encourage and inspire us to explore the other more deeply. It’s through proper examination of both sources that we come to a right understanding of God’s creation. Both books speak the truth because they come from the Source of all truth.

While holding Scripture as our ultimate authority, we can trust that studying the created realm will help us to make sense of our world. Though human interpretation may err, we can know that God’s Word and world are consistently reliable.

Let’s keep this in mind as we dig deeper into how old the earth is according to the Bible. First, let’s explore two prominent viewpoints—young earth and old earth.

Defining Young-Earth vs. Old-Earth Views

Two common creation viewpoints among Christians are young-earth creationism (YEC) and old earth-creationism (OEC). (Evolutionary creationism is another viewpoint that we explore in other articles.)

In general, YEC believes the earth is 6,000 to 10,000 years old and OEC believes the earth is 4.6 billion years old.

This major difference often leads to a lot of confusion and important questions. You might wonder if Christians have always held a young-earth perspective. It’s a common assumption, and it’s understandable to be concerned that an old-earth view might just be a modern attempt to make the Bible fit with science, particularly with evolutionary theories that exclude a creator.

However, Jewish and Christian leaders have been wrestling with the details of the Genesis 1 creation account for centuries.. Prominent figures like Philo (BC 13–AD 50), Clement of Alexandria (AD 150–215), Origen (185–254), and Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–430) noted how difficult it was to determine the true nature of the creation “days” in Genesis.

This long history of discussion brings us to the key questions that Christians are still asking today. These questions deserve careful thought as we seek to understand how old the earth is according to the Bible.

• Does the Bible actually demand a young-earth interpretation?
• How much time transpired between God creating the universe (Genesis 1:1) and God permitting visible light to reach Earth’s surface (Genesis 1:3).
• Why does Genesis use the words “day,” “evening,” and “morning” if the creation periods were longer than 24 hours?
• Why is there no closure of God’s seventh day?
• How much time transpired between God creating Adam and God creating Eve?
• Can’t we just add up the years in the biblical genealogies to figure out the age of the earth?
• If the earth is billions of years old, then does an old-earth view mean that biological evolution must have happened?
• Is the old-earth perspective simply a case of allowing science to trump the Bible?
• And what about death? Doesn’t an old-earth view mean God is responsible for animals dying years ago, long before humanity’s fall into sin?

These are the very questions we need to explore. As we dig into the details in the next section, we’ll unpack what Scripture says and see how the two books of God’s revelation—Scripture and nature—can help us find the answers.

How Old Is the Earth According to the Bible?

The Bible doesn’t give us an exact age for either the universe or Earth. It is important to recognize that God inspired the Bible authors to communicate to all generations of readers. Only during the last century or two have the actual ages of the universe and Earth become issues of interest for Bible readers, just like only during the past 180 years have Bible readers known or cared about dinosaurs, Neanderthals, or molecules. The Bible naturally is silent on issues for which only modern-day readers would have any knowledge. 

As a thought to consider, perhaps God didn’t specify details about atoms, molecules, or the ages of the universe and Earth in Scripture to encourage us to study his creation so that we might know him more.

Case for Old Earth Creationism

Does the Bible Demand a Young-Earth Interpretation?

Not at all. Not only does the Bible not demand we embrace young-earth creationism, a careful, literal reading of all the Bible’s creation texts refutes young-earth creationism. Here are three reasons that explain why a young-earth interpretation is inconsistent with a literal reading of all the Bible’s creation texts.

1. Original Language: Meaning of “Day,” “Evening,” “Morning”

One of the most helpful ways to understand Scripture is to consider the original context and language in which it was written. Let’s consider the word “day” in the Genesis 1 creation account in its original Hebrew.

The Hebrew word for day is yôm. It’s important to understand that nearly all biblical Hebrew nouns have literal definitions. Yôm has four literal distinct literal definitions:

1. The daylight hours (from sunrise to sundown)
2. Part of the daylight hours 
3. A 24-hour calendar day
4. A long stretch of time finite in duration

Three of these definitions are used in Genesis 1:3–2:4. In Genesis 1:3–5, yôm refers to the daylight hours. In Genesis 1:14, yôm refers to 24-hour calendar days. In Genesis 2:4, yôm refers to the duration of all God’s works of creation, clearly a time period much longer than 24 hours. So, yôm does not inherently imply only 24-hour time windows.

Genesis 1 appends the terms “evening was, morning was” to each of the first six creation days. The Hebrew words for evening and morning are ‘ereb and boqer, which can also be translated as “ending” and “beginning,” respectively. So, no matter which literal definitions of ‘ereb and boqer one chooses, the repeated use of the “evening was, morning was” phrase implies that each of the first six creation days are completed time periods. When it comes to God’s seventh creation day (Genesis 2:1-4), the “evening was, morning was” phrase is missing. This absence implies that God’s seventh day is not yet completed. Both Psalm 95:10–11 and Hebrews 4:1–11 explicitly state that we are still in God’s seventh day, a day that is continuing into the future.

What is God doing during his seventh day? He is resting/ceasing from his work of creation (Genesis 2:2–3) and bringing about his work of redemption (John 5:16–47). God’s time of resting/ceasing from his work of creation explains the fossil record enigma: why we see so much evidence for the appearance of new phyla, classes, orders, and families of life before the creation of the first humans (the six creation days) and no such evidence during the human era (the seventh day). God’s ongoing rest also explains why, unlike astronomers and geologists, field biologists and sociologists see no evidence for creation miracles in their research. Since their research is limited to when God has ceased from his creation work, evidence for creation miracles will be absent from their research findings. The ongoing nature of God’s seventh day establishes that the Genesis creation days must be much longer than 168 hours. An old-earth perspective definitely fits a literal interpretation of the days in Genesis.

2. Contextual Clues

We can also consider the contextual clues we see in Genesis 1 and 2, which describe the creation of Adam and Eve. Genesis 1:27 states that God created man, male and female, during the sixth creation day.

Genesis 2 states that God created Adam first, then later he created Eve and that Adam and Eve were the first humans. Genesis 2 further states that God created Adam outside the Garden of Eden, later placed him in Eden where Adam watched the trees in Eden grow. God then assigned to Adam the task of tending the garden. Anyone familiar with gardening knows that it takes considerable labor and time. Later, God assigned Adam the task of examining the different species of nephesh (soulish) animals in Eden and assigning appropriate names to the different species. Later, God observed that Adam was alone. Though Adam was experiencing diverse relationships with the soulish animals he had named, none were able to relate to him in a completely satisfying and fulfilling way. Then God put Adam into a deep sleep, took part of the man’s side, and made Eve from it. God brought Eve to Adam and Adam exclaimed happa ‘am. This Hebrew word’s most frequent translation is “at long last.” The sequence of events alone — Adam’s placement in Eden, the growth of the trees, the tending of the garden, the naming of the animals, and finally the creation of Eve — points to a sixth day far longer than 24 hours. Adam’s exclamation, best translated ‘at long last,’ fits that reading.

3. Events Before the First Creation Day

In biblical Hebrew verbs by themselves do not specify the duration of actions or the time ordering of actions. However, the verb order relative to the subject of the verb does. The verb order in Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 imply the completed nature of the creation of the universe and the completed nature of the formation of the primordial Earth. Thus, Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 imply an unspecified duration of time transpired between the creation of the universe and the formation of Earth and another unspecified duration of time transpired between the formation of Earth and the events of the first creation day. Thus, Genesis 1:1–3 allow for a lot of time, even billions of years, to transpire between God creating the universe (Genesis 1:1) and God transforming Earth’s atmosphere/clouds to permit visible light to reach Earth’s surface (Genesis 1:3, Job 38:8–9).

4. God Is Constant (and So Are the Laws of Nature)

One of God’s most beautiful promises is his constancy. He is always faithful, always all-knowing, always loving, and always just. He is not fickle like we humans are; we can rely on him to be the same yesterday, today, and forever.

God blessed us by designing his creation to reflect his constant character. In Jeremiah 33, God specifically addresses his faithfulness and the constant continuity he set forth in creation.

He compares his covenant with his people to his covenant with day and night and the fixed laws that govern heaven and earth:

“If I have not made my covenant with day and night and established the fixed laws of heaven and earth, then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David my servant.”

The beauty of this passage is that we know that God’s covenants cannot and will not be broken. His promises to his people stand true.

This promise gives us confidence that we can study the creation around us and know it to be a reliable source of information about God. We don’t have to worry that the laws of nature that exist one day will be different the next.

We can trust that the processes and rules in place at the creation of the earth hold true today. This confidence allows us to use scientific means to understand the world around us and discover answers to questions like “How old is the earth?” As both young-earth and old-earth creationists acknowledge, if the laws of physics indeed are immutable (unchanging) then the ages of the universe and earth must be 13.8 and 4.6 billion years respectively.

Animal Death: Not a Problem Biblically or Scientifically

In Romans 5:12, Paul explains, “Sin entered the world through one man . . . and in this way death came to all people.” Some Christians take this to mean that no death of any kind existed on Earth until after Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit.

However, a closer look at this passage reveals that Adam’s sin brought death to all humans—not to all life. Only one species on Earth can experience sin, namely humans. Paul explicitly stated that Adam’s sin brought death to all people. In 1 Corinthians 15:20–22, Paul again clarifies that Adam’s sin brought death to all humans. 

And when we look at Job 38–41 and Psalm 104, we can see God’s relationship with animal death. These passages show that animal death does not ascribe evil or cruelty to God—it’s simply a part of his creation plan for which Job and the psalmist praise God. These passages declare that God provides prey for lions and ravens so that their young lack not for food. Field biology shows that removing carnivores from an ecosystem ultimately leads to more herbivore death, not less.

Can We Use Genealogies to Determine the Age of the Earth?

Genealogies provide us with details about biblical family lines and make important theological points, especially about whom God will bless and whom God will judge. They can help us understand the connections between multiple biblical characters, and they reveal God’s faithfulness as he fulfills his promises across generations.

Genealogies were primarily intended to relay important family relationships and don’t necessarily outline every generation in the family line.

For example, 1 Chronicles 24 and Ezra 7 outline the genealogy of Aaron. Though each account ends at a different point in the family line, you can see that a middle portion of the Chronicles genealogy is missing from the Ezra account.

Some people might be concerned about this apparent inconsistency, but we have to remember the intention behind the genealogy. Again, it wasn’t to show every single generation that existed in someone’s bloodline. A genealogy highlights prominent figures so that we, as readers of the Scripture, can gain a fuller understanding of God’s work in history and salvation.

Let’s take another Hebrew term into consideration: yalad. Yalad is typically translated as “begat” in our modern English Bibles. Most readers are quick to assume that begat means “bore this child” (i.e., “the parent begat/bore a child”).

However, yalad can be used in multiple ways. It sometimes outlines a direct parent-child relationship, but it also sometimes spans multiple generations—think a great-grandmother and her many great-grandchildren.

Ultimately, there are significant gaps in the genealogies that prevent us from outlining a complete family line. For these reasons, relying on biblical genealogies to determine when God created Adam and Eve or the age of the earth proves unreliable.

What About Biological  Evolution?

While old-earth creationism does hold that Earth is billions of years old, this view doesn’t necessarily imply that humans or animals originated via macroevolution. In fact, the topics of evolution and the age of the earth are separate issues entirely. A 4.6-billion-year-old Earth is far too young for any conceivable natural-process scenario to yield even the simplest living organism.

We at Reasons to Believe do not endorse macroevolution and are skeptical that it can account for either the origin or the history of life on Earth. Our creation view holds that all humans are descended from Adam and Eve who were specially created by God—Adam formed from the dust and given life through God’s breath (Genesis 2:7), and Eve fashioned from Adam’s side (Genesis 2:21–22). Through this unique creative act, humanity was endowed with the image of God (Genesis 1:26–27). In this way, RTB affirms the ex nihilo (out-of-nothing) creation of Adam and Eve. (If you’re curious how we can affirm an ancient earth that’s billions of years old while rejecting macroevolution, you might enjoy our scholars’ thorough explanation in Thinking About Evolution.)

Young-earth creationists believe there were no carnivores previous to Adam’s first sin. They also believe all land animals are descended from the several hundred animal pairs on board Noah’s ark. In each case, they invoke extremely rapid and aggressive “diversification” to explain all the carnivores and land animals existing today. The diversification rates their model requires are orders of magnitude faster than standard evolutionary theory proposes — a striking irony for a framework built on rejecting evolution.

Doesn’t Old-Earth Creationism Place Science as a Higher Authority Than Scripture?

Not at all—the role of science should be to support God’s Word and try to understand his creation. Scripture is, and must be, the ultimate authority in all that it addresses for all Christians. And as we’ve discussed throughout this post, there are many biblical reasons to believe the earth is old.

Scripture doesn’t give us a clear and simple answer to every question that life brings. When it doesn’t, we must examine the full message of the Bible as well as the creation around us to help make sense of what we’re trying to understand. It’s through the lens of the two books (the book of Scripture and the book of nature), both of which are perfectly inerrant, that we can come to a more thorough view and appreciation of God.

Charity in All Things

No matter what, we’ll always have brothers and sisters in Christ who have different views. This is true when it comes to the age of the earth, as well as other biblical teachings and beliefs. Despite holding differing views, we must always remember to prioritize charity in such discussions. Here, for example, is a charitable debate on the age of the earth between a young-earth creationist and an old-earth creationist.

Let’s not forget what we’re called to do in James 1:19b:

Everyone should be quick to listen, 
slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

Too often, discussions on the age of the earth become argumentative and unloving. But Christ has called us to listen attentively and respond with love—even to those we might strongly disagree with.

Continue Learning

As followers of Christ, let’s continue learning about God and loving one another well. May any conversation we have on the age of the earth according to the Bible remind us, ultimately, that God is the Creator of all things and is worthy of our praise and devotion.

To explore this topic in more depth, be sure to check out A Matter of Days, 2nd edition; Navigating Genesis; Rescuing Inerrancy by Hugh Ross.