History of the World

A Traditionalist Perspective

By Rabbi Rachel M. Solomin

Jewish years are numbered according to the rabbinic understanding of when the Creation of the world took place. Though many rabbis attempted this calculation, it was that of Rabbi Yossi ben Halafta-- which declared Monday, October 7, 3761 B.C.E., to be the day Creation began--that gained currency. The following chart shows his account of the time from Creation to the destruction of the Second Temple:

Year of the Mundane Era	Event	Biblical Basis
1	Creation, including that of Adam and Eve	Genesis 1:1
130	Birth of Seth	Genesis 5:1-32, with dates of birth given relative to the age of the father.
235	Birth of Enosh
325	Birth of Keinan
395	Death of Mehalaleil
460	Birth of Jared
622	Birth of Enokh
687	Birth of Bethuselah
874	Birth of Lamekh
930	Death of Adam
1042	Death of Seth
1056	Birth of Noah
1140	Death of Enosh
1235	Death of Keinan
1290	Death of Mehalaleil
1422	Death of Jared
1556	Birth of Shem
1654	Death of Lamekh
1656	Death of Methuselah, The Flood	Genesis 11:10-29, with some dates extrapolated from years of life listed previously. There seems to be a bit of inexactitude in the time immediately after the Flood.
1658	Birth of Arpakhshad
1693	Birth of Salah
1723	Birth of Ever
1757	Birth of Peleg
1787	Birth of Reu
1819	Birth of Serug
1848	Birth of Nahor
1878	Birth of Terah
1948	Birth of Abraham (Avram)
2048	Birth of Isaac	Genesis 21:5
2108	Birth of Jacob and Esau	Genesis 25:26
2238	Death of Joseph	Genesis 25:26
2448	Israelites leave Egypt	Exodis 12:40-41
2928	Solomon Dedicates the First Temple in Jerusalem	I Kings 6:1
3338	Destruction of the First Temple	The First Temple lasted 410 years, according to the Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 9a.
3408	Return from the Babylonian Exile	Jeremiah prophesied a 70 year exile.
3828	Destruction of the Second Temple	A post-Biblical chronology of kingdoms is given in the Talmud, Avodah Zarah 9a and 10a (probably basing itself on Rabbi Yossi's Seder Olam Rabbah). Daniel prophesied 490 years from the First Temple's destruction to Second Temple's destruction. This results in a date for the second destruction of 67 C.E. (Daniel 9:24 ff).

Rabbi Rachel Miller Solomin is an educator living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was ordained from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies of the University of Judaism (now American Jewish University) in 2001.