BIBLICAL GENEALOGIES AND HUMAN HISTORY

Are biblical genealogies of any value in determining the length of human his-tory upon the Earth? Some contend they are not. It is alleged that there is no nec-essary conflict between the Old Testament view of man’s origin and the modern anthropological theory that human history reaches back several millions of years. One author stated: “Any attempt to ascribe a specific or even a general age to ei-ther man or the Earth from a Biblical standpoint is a grievous error.”1 (emp. added—WJ). Again: “The time of man’s beginning is not even hinted at in the Bible. There is no possible way of determining when Adam was created.”2 The same writer then discussed the so-called “geologic timetable ” (without any hint that he disagreed with it) which, according to many modern geologists, chronicles the history of Earth over a span of some 4.6 to 5 billion years. He concluded: “If geologists are correct in their dating methods, man is a very recent new-comer to this planet. ” It might be well to observe that for years anthropologists have as-serted thatman isapproximately1millionyearsold; evolutionaryscientists, how-ever, are now claiming that man (Homo sapiens) reaches back two to three mil