This page was originally written in August 2017.
I thought it might be an interesting exercise to run through Josephus’s Antiquities of the Jews and see if I can create a chronology of the world from creation to the Babylonian exile. I’m not doing this as a comprehensive investigation. It won’t address various self-contradictions in Josephus’ work. It just starts with Adam and uses a variety of data from within Josephus. I’ll count things in Anno Mundi, with the creation of Adam as occurring in year 0 A M. The Josephus citations will be in the form X.Y.Z, so that, for example, 1.3.4 refers to the first book, third chapter, fourth section or paragraph. I will not count fractional years or particular months — I’ll just round things to the nearest year. I’ll consider an event in the Xth year after something to have occurred X years after it. For all these reasons, I’m sure there will be room to find fault in my chronology. It’s a rough-draft kind of thing. I’m also using Whiston’s translation, for what that’s worth.
According to 1.3.4, Seth was born when Adam was 230, so he was born in 230 AM. Enos was born 205 years later, in 435 AM. Cainan was born 190 years later, in 625 AM. 170 years later, Malaleel was born, in 795 AM. Jared was born 165 years later, in 960 AM. 162 years later, Enoch was born, in 1122 AM. Mathusela was born 165 years later, in 1287 AM. 187 years later Lamech was born, in 1474 AM. 182 years later Noah was born, in 1656 AM.
1.3.9 implies that the Flood occurred when Noah was 600 years old, thus falling 2256 AM. However, in 1.3.3 Josephus says the Flood happened in 2656. I will ignore the 2656 figure, because it seems to be a mistake, and we’ll go with the 2256 figure.
1.6.5 places the birth of Abraham 229 years after the deluge, and therefore in 2485 AM.
1.12.2 places the birth of Isaac 100 years after the birth of Abraham, and so in 2585 AM.
Unfortunately, the age at which Isaac had Jacob does not seem to be recorded, although according to 1.16.1 indicates that Isaac was “about forty” when married, so that Jacob must be born in 2625 AM or later.
Let’s fill this gap, for the moment, by using the figure from Genesis 25:20, that Isaac was 60 when Jacob was born, bringing us to 2645 AM.
2.7.6 records that Jacob was 130 years old when he entered Egypt and met Pharaoh, so the year is 2775 AM.
2.8.1 records that Jacob died in Egypt 147 years old, so in 2792 AM.
2.15.2 places the Exodus 215 years after the entry into Egypt by Jacob, so in 2990 AM.
3.1.6 says that the Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness, so that they entered Canaan in 3030 AM.
5.1.19 says that under Joshua the Israelites almost entirely finished their conquest of Canaan five years later, so in 3035 AM.
5.1.29 gives the reign of Joshua over the Israelites as 25 years, so until 3055 AM.
8.3.1 gives the time from the Exodus to the founding of the temple in the fourth year of Solomon as 592 years, bringing us to 3582 AM, although, unfortunately Josephus explicitly identifies this as 3102 AM. In addition, Josephus in the same paragraph implies a period of 420 years from Abraham entering Canaan to the Exodus, which does not fit the figures above. And Josephus implies a figure of 2702 from the deluge to creation, which does not fit the figures above, either the 2656 he gives as a total or the 2256 that you get from adding up the antediluvians. We will nonetheless stick with our figure of 3582 and carry on.
8.4.1 gives the time for Solomon to finish all his temple building as 7 years, so 3589 AM.
8.5.1 says that Solomon then spends 13 years on his own palace, so until 3602 AM.
8.7.8 says that Solomon reigned 80 years before his death, thus ending his reign 76 years after the foundation, placing his death in 3658 AM, when he is succeeded by Rehoboam.
8.10.2 places an invasion by Shishak 5 years into Rehoboam’s reign, thus in 3663 AM.
8.10.4 says that Rehoboam reigned 17 years and was succeeded by Abijah, so this brings us to 3675 AM.
8.11.3: Abijah reigned 3 years and was succeeded by Asa, bringing us to 3678 AM.
8.12.1: Asa is attacked by Zerah of Ethiopia in his tenth year, 3688 AM.
8.12.6: Asa reigned 41 years and was succeeded by Jehoshaphat (3729 AM).
9.3.2-10.1.1: Jehoshaphat reigned 25 years and was succeeded by Jehoram (3754 AM).
9.5.3: Jehoram reigned 8 years and was succeeded by Ahaziah (3762 AM).
9.6.3: Ahaziah reigned 1 year, and died (3763 AM).
9.7.1: Athaliah succeeded Ahaziah, and reigned six years (to 3769 AM), and was killed the next year (3770 AM), and succeeded by Jehoash of Judah.
9.8.6: Joash of Israel came to the throne 37 years into the reign of Jehoash of Judah (3807 AM).
9.9.1: In year 2 of Joash of Israel, Amaziah came to power in Judah (3809 AM).
9.9.3: Amaziah died after reigning 29 years, and was succeeded by Uzziah (3838 AM).
9.10.4: Uzziah reigned 52 years, and was succeeded by Jotham (3890 AM).
9.12.1: Jotham reigned 16 years (we will ignore the possibility that some of these years overlapped with Uzziah), and was succeeded by Ahaz (3906 AM).
9.12.3: Ahaz reigned 16 years, and was succeeded by Hezekiah (3922 AM).
10.3.1: Hezekiah reigned 29 years, and was succeeded by Manasseh (3951 AM).
10.3.2: Manasseh reigned 55 years, and was succeeded by Amon (4006 AM).
10.4.1: Amon reigned 2 years, and was succeeded by Josiah (4008 AM).
10.5.1-2: Josiah reigned 31 years, and was succeeded by Jehoahaz (4039 AM).
10.5.2: Jehoahaz reigned 3 months, which we will round to zero years, and was succeeded by Jehoiakim (4039 AM).
10.6.3: Jehoiakim reigned 11 years, and was replaced by Jechoniah (4050 AM).
10.6.3: Jechoniah ruled about three months, which we will round to zero years (4050 AM).
Here we will end our chronology of the Bible. History securely places the end of Jehoiachin’s reign in 597 BCE, so that can say, on the basis of this selective chronology, that Josephus places the creation of the world about 4647 BCE.
There are, as can be seen above from the comments on 1.3.9 and 8.3.1, that there are discrepancies in Josephus’ numbers that could lead to adding 400 years or subtracting 480 years from this figure. There are likely other discrepancies I have not found yet, and if I were looking for more I would go searching the reigns of the kings of Israel and comparing them to those of Judah, which yields such a notoriously large number of discrepancies in the Bible.
Nevertheless, Josephus chronology is, overall, in the ballpark of the biblical chronologies found in the Masoretic Text, which depending on how you try to make the numbers work give creation dates of around, say, 4004 or 4164 BCE. Josephus’s dates are also in the ballpark of the Septuagint chronologies which tend to place creation roughly in the ballpark of 5500 BCE. Josephus is squarely within the range of biblical traditions that have survived to the present.