James Ussher

James Ussher (1581–1656) was the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland from 1625 to 1656.

The divine comedy
Creationism
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“”As in all cases, the findings of science are far more awe-inspiring than the rantings of the godly. The history of the cosmos begins, if we use the word "time" to mean anything at all, about [13.8] billion years ago. If we use the word "time" wrongly, we shall end up with the infantile computation of the celebrated Archbishop James Ussher of Armagh, who calculated that the Earth — "the Earth" alone, mind you, not the cosmos — had its birthday on Saturday, October 22, in 4004 BC, at six in the afternoon. This dating was endorsed by William Jennings Bryan, a former American secretary of state and two-time Democratic presidential nominee, in courtroom testimony in the third decade of the twentieth century.
—Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything[1]

He is most famous for calculating what was believed, at the time, to be the exact first day of creation based on a detailed examination of the Bible and of older chronologies and calendars. The date which he arrived at — the night preceding October 23, 4004 BCE — is still used by many young earth creationists today.

Ussher's chronology
See the main article on this topic: Age of the Earth § Early Christian and modern Young Earth Creationist views

The chronology Ussher devised gives the following biblically identified dates for important events.[2]

Biblical disagreements

The main distinction between Ussher and other significantly different (i.e. in the hundreds of years) biblical chronologies depends on which Old Testament version is used.

As with most Protestant bibles today, Ussher relied on the Masoretic textFile:Wikipedia's W.svg. However, the Eastern Orthodox and older Catholic bibles as well as ancient Christians prior to JeromeFile:Wikipedia's W.svg tend(ed) to use the Septuagint which moves the date of Creation back to around 5000-5500 BCE, but places the Flood much later (around 1850 BCE).

A third option, using the Samaritan PentateuchFile:Wikipedia's W.svg, while locating Creation (in 4064 BCE) almost simultaneously to the Masoretic text, moves the Flood back to around 2800 BCE (or about 450 years prior to Masoretic calculations).

A few, more modern (and fringe) biblical chronologies have moved Creation back significantly, such as Harold Camping's 11,013 BCE, or two 19th century calculationsFile:Wikipedia's W.svg of, respectively, 12,500 BCE and 20,000 BCE. Go biblical inerrancy!

gollark: They are projected onto the crystal sphere surrounding the Earth disc by the government.
gollark: I don't believe in astrology because the stars do not actually exist.
gollark: Shuffle them around a bit, sort of thing.
gollark: Yes, just edit the stars.
gollark: Did you try under your sofa cushions?

See also

Further reading
  • Barr, James, 'Why the World Was Created in 4004 B.C.: Archbishop Ussher and Biblical Chronology', Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, vol. 67, pp. 575-608
  • Gould, Stephen Jay, 'Fall in the House of Ussher', Natural History, vol. 100 (November 1991), pp. 12-21

References
  1. Page 57-58.
  2. Ussher dates
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