When was Noah’s flood?

Answer

Genesis 6—9 recounts the events of Noah’s flood, also known as the Great Flood. If the genealogy presented in Genesis 5 is meant to be exhaustive, we can calculate the dates of various events by simply adding the time spans between fathers and sons, as detailed in Genesis 5:

Adam to Seth — 130 years

Seth to Enosh — 105 years

Enosh to Kenan — 90 years

Kenan to Mahalalel — 70 years

Mahalalel to Jared — 65 years

Jared to Enoch — 162 years

Enoch to Methuselah — 65 years

Methuselah to Lamech — 187 years

Lamech to Noah — 182 years

By this calculation, the time from Adam to Noah was approximately 1,056 years. These are rough estimates because it is unclear if the years are counted from conception or birth; moreover, the years are given in whole numbers but likely included (or excluded) partial years. (For example, Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born, accounting for a certain number of months and days.)

Therefore, Noah’s birth took place around 1,056 years after Adam’s creation. Subsequently, in Genesis 7:11, it is mentioned that the flood occurred in the 600th year of Noah’s life, indicating that the Great Flood happened roughly 1,656 years after Adam was created in Eden. Applying a similar approach places Adam and Eve’s creation at approximately 4004 BC. Consequently, Noah’s flood is estimated to have transpired around 2348 BC.

Similar genealogies are present throughout the Old Testament. Employing the same methodology positions Abraham’s calling 228 years after Noah’s flood or roughly 1,884 years after the beginning of humanity. These genealogies can also be used to work backward from known dates, such as the fall of Jerusalem. Utilizing this technique, Abraham was born circa 2166 BC, and the exodus during Moses’ era likely occurred around 1446 BC.

Some scholars believe that the genealogies in the Bible are not meant to be used for precise chronological calculations, but rather to convey theological truths.

I believe that the genealogies were not intended, and were never understood by the original audience, to be exhaustive. It is possible that generations were skipped, as we know happened in the genealogy of Jesus recorded in Matthew. If this is the case in the Genesis 5 genealogy, and there are years unaccounted for, then we truly have no idea when the Great Flood took place.

The precise year of the flood is less significant than the significance of the flood, which is that God punishes sin but also offers a way of salvation.