Dating Adam
An Analysis of Biblical Chronology
- Biblical Studies & Commentaries
- Publisher: Resource Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2026
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Publisher's Description
Genesis 5:5 states: “Altogether, Adam lived 930 years...” This number was originally recorded on a clay tablet in sexagesimal numerals as “IIIII<<<<.” The sexagesimal number system (with a base of 60) was the fist positional number system in the world. It was used throughout the Middle East from about 3000 BC until at least 1700 BC. After that it was slowly phased out in favor of the decimal number system (with a base of 10) that is universally in use today. During the reigns of the kings David and Solomon (about 1000 BC) learned scribes were commissioned to convert the then long-obsolete sexagesimal numerals to decimal quantities expressed in words. Could they have erred in their conversions? This work demonstrates that some very likely and obvious errors were made. It re-examines all the number conversions in the book of Genesis.
Endorsements (2)
“The mathematician, Michiel Loubser, has made a major contribution to the chronology of the Bible by deciphering the improbable high ages of the patriarchs in Abraham’s genealogy in the book of Genesis. He backs up his calculations with copious amounts of background information about the way we must understand the earliest recorded accounts in the Bible.”
“Dating Adam by Michiel Loubser is a must-read work for any serious scholar seeking to better understand the anomalous nature of the advanced ages of the Patriarchs as reported in biblical text. It is a masterpiece of rigorous mathematical analysis sensitively applied to explain how these numbers may have become inadvertently inflated over time. For anyone interested in the potential for transitional error when fundamentally different number systems interface, Loubser’s work is a delight.”
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