How long have humans existed since Adam and Eve were created?

Question

I understand this is chronologically significant with regard to 'end time' prophecies in the Bible. Is the 6,000 year mark still to come? Or has it passed?

Isnrblogdotcalm - have a thumbs up from me. You're absolutely correct. Perhaps I should have started this q with 'Jehovah's Witnesses, how long...' Y'know, asking questions is much more difficult than answering them! Ah, well, back to the drawing board....

I'm so grateful to Achtung for his contribution, because we now have the JW answer. By the way, I do so hope you weren't referring to me as an enemy of truth - if I have inadvertently spread misinformation I apologise wholeheartedly and without reservation. It's just that when I was a JW I was led to believe that the end of 6,000 years of human existence since Adam and Eve were created was hugely significant because that would signify the next era - the millennial reign of Christ over a paradise earth, which, as every JW has been told, could not happen untill after the battle of Armageddon. That is what my parents believed and that is what I was brought up to believe.

Now I learn that the date of Eve's creation is more significant because it was the last act of the sixth creative day. Then, to my utter amazement I read that the date of Eve's creation could be an unknown number of years, decades or centuries after Adam. That would be the get-out clause, would it?

To all you newcomers, I never give thumbs down - as tempted as I might be. If I'm stupid enough to post this question on the internet then I really shouldn't complain at the answers. After all, I asked the question...

Troll to troll raised a valid point about the Bible expression that a day to the Lord is like 1,000 years (to us). It's a figure of speech, and not necessarily an absolute period of time. And, of course, the bottom line is that no-one knows the day or the hour - neither are we intended to know. We should be living each and every day as if the second coming was going to happen tonight.

So, JW publications only mentioned the possibility that Adams creation was mere months before Eves? And three decades ago the publications of JW's were simply wondering out loud? And everything apart from the date of Adam's creation was presented as educated guesses? That's not how I remember it. Neither is that the tone of the articles quoted.

"JW's never pretended they were certain of these ideas" - excuse me, but this is what was said in the Awake! magazine of October 1968: "Today we have the evidence required, all of it! And it is overwhelming! All the many, many parts of the great sign of the last days are here, together with verifying Bible chronology." Nothing ambiguous there.

Yet in 1976, the July 15 Watchtower laid the blame of jumping to wrong conclusions with individual JW's - it was their own understanding (about 1975) that was based on wrong premises (nothing to do with the anything the society wrote) - they were admonished to concentrate on adjusting their viewpoint

Answer 1

You've got answers ranging from 6,000 to 10,000 years through to 30,000, 37,000, 100,000, 160,000, 200,000, ending with 'a few million'. I'll take that as a 'Don't know' then.

Continuing with the guessing game, you then got a Jehovah's Witness answer that understood the theological significance of your 6,000 year-mark point. But that answer only served to show how JW leaders around the late 1960s through to 1975 made an uneducated guess at the guessing game themselves by stating [and I quote]: '...bible chronology seems to indicate that the 6000 year anniversary of Adam's creation was during or about 1975... it can help influence an educated guess about Eve's creation date (and the end of the sixth creative day). Of course, an unknown number of years, decades, or centuries transpired between the creations of Adam and later of Eve. Decades ago, Jehovah's Witness publications mentioned the possibility that Adam's creation was mere months before Eve's. In retrospect, of course, that idea seems remarkably odd because the bible explictly notes that Adam performed the task of observing and naming all the animals.'

I can agree with the 'remarkably odd' bit, but for different reasons. This is what the Watchtower Society leaders said about naming the animals:

"According to reliable Bible chronology Adam was created in the year 4026 B.C.E., likely in the autumn of the year, at the end of the sixth day of creation... Adam would realize this lonely condition very quickly, perhaps in just a few days or a few weeks. He would realize he needed another earthling with whom he could communicate, share his experiences, and his life. Nor would his naming the animals take an unduly long time. The basic animal kinds could have been relatively quickly named, for when such basic kinds were taken into the ark in Noah's day, it did not involve millions of beasts, but perhaps only a few hundred basic kinds. Thus, Adam's naming of the animals and his realizing that he needed a counterpart would have occupied only a brief time after his creation. Since it was also Jehovah's purpose for man to multiply and fill the earth, it is logical that he would create Eve soon after Adam, perhaps just a few weeks or months later in the same year, 4026 B.C.E. After her creation, God's rest day, the seventh period, immediately followed. Therefore, God's seventh day and the time man has been on earth apparently run parallel. ...The seventh day of the Jewish week, the sabbath, would well picture the final 1,000-year reign of God's kingdom under Christ... Hence, when Christians note from God's timetable the approaching end of 6,000 years of human history, it fills them with anticipation." (Watchtower 1 May 1968 p 271) Also "There's no basis for believing that mankind, faced with what it now faces, can exist for the seventh thousand-year-period [under the present system]... We should not think that this year of 1975 is of no significance to us.' (Wt 1 May 1975 p 285)

Such was their anticipation that many good JWs sold up homes, cashed insurance policies and moved to places where the need for preaching the JW gospel was great, doing it full time for no wages. The Wt.Soc commended them for this. Statistics shot up - baptisms greatly increased - then it all slumped shortly after 1975 and those who had implicitly believed what the Soc had told them were admonished for reading too much into what had been said! Those who left, disillusioned, were smeared as being selfish, serving God with a time-limit in mind. Post-1975 recruits were told the Wt.Soc had never said Armageddon would come in 1975 and it was all just a little blip that 'enemies of the Society' [= enemies of the truth? The Society is the Truth?] blow up out of all proportion, but persecution is to be expected.

Well, now it seems as if this Society that equates itself more closely with God's truth than any other religion on earth today, is still saying 1975 marked Adam's creation so the hot potato continues to be the time gap till Eve was created. JWs now admit they don't know but have given themselves a new lease of life by saying it could have been CENTURIES after Adam's creation! No wonder they haven't mentioned their ideas in decades, only being forced into public excuses by the likes of questions such as yours. Keep asking.

Answer 2

It is only gross to consider marrying a sibling in our context of the relationship. 6032 years ago humans were pretty much perfect, in that they did not have genetic abnormalities, so there was no fear, or even any experience with abnormal births. At least not until the fallen angles began impregnating human women. As humans progress back to the level of perfection and everlasting life, attitudes may change about siblings marrying. The reason for the mention of only the first two male children is the significance of the events in tracing the lineage of Christ. The Bible gives the name of the first born and how old the father was at the time of the birth. That is how one can distinguish how long it has been since the creation. In 1974, it was 6000 years. If you decide to do the math, don't forget there is not year zero. Christ was born in 2 B.C., was age 1 in 1 C.E., and was age 2 in 2 C.E.

Answer 3

Some parameters and the info from sources I use.
4004 + 2007 + 204 = 6215 -Anno Dei
and the Jewish calendar: 5768

There is a great deal of chronology in the Word of God.

It is easy to show that it is approximately 4000 years from the first Adam (the very Adam of Adam and Eve) to the last Adam (Jesus).
And Jesus was born about 2000 years ago so 6000 years have passed since Adam was formed and then Even was brought forth from his rib.

Is exact year and all needed? I do not think so.
Jesus states one "be ready" and two "no one but the Father knows".

I simply gave a you scholarly work that zeros in on the info you ask for and did not go into a detailed explanation myself.

What may interest you is that the 6000 year mark marks nothing! Paul stated a thousand years is as a day and a day is as a thousand years has nothing to do with either the amount of time that creation took or the end of this dispensation. Paul was saying that God does not reckon time as humans experience time. Indeed eternity is outside of time and at the end of the age time ceases.

Many fundamental literalists believe creation happened in 6000 years and was completed with Adam the Eve 6000 years ago as a result of misapplying Paul’s picture of time compression and expansion. These people apply a verse toward the end of the bible in one language to the verses in the very beginning of the bible that is in a different language about a different subject.

The WTB&TS does this very same thing and clouds and confuses people with this trash. The self appointed prophets follow their own ideas and wants and foist the babble upon the trusting flock.

If further explanation on what point of view this answerer is coming from is needed please email me. -T2T
see below:

Answer 4

It seems likely that the 6000 year anniversary of Eve's creation is future (as of 2007), although bible chronology seems to indicate that the 6000 year anniversary of Adam's creation was during or about 1975.

The date of Eve's creation is of some theological significance, since it represents the last act of the sixth creative "day" (the sixth day did NOT end at Adam's creation, which was earlier than Eve's by some unknown number of years, decades, or centuries).

The date of Adam's creation does not itself seem theologically significant, except inasmuch as it can help influence an educated guess about Eve's creation date (and the end of the sixth creative day). Of course, an unknown number of years, decades, or centuries transpired between the creations of Adam and later of Eve.

Decades ago, Jehovah's Witness publications mentioned the possibility that Adam's creation was mere months before Eve's. In retrospect, of course, that idea seems remarkably odd because the bible explictly notes that Adam performed the task of observing and naming all the animals.

Also decades ago, the publications of Jehovah's Witnesses 'wondered aloud' as it were, whether the Millenial Reign of Christ could be thought of as overlapping the final thousand years of the current seventh 'creative day'; if so then it seemed interesting and symmetrical to imagine that Jehovah had arranged for the seventh creative day to be of seven-thousand-year duration (which would have begun after Eve's creation some unknown time after Adam's creation). But only the date of Adam's creation was known with some degree of certainty, and the rest was presented as educated guesses rather than as some inspired revelation or special message from heaven. Of course, Jehovah's Witnesses never pretended that they were certain of these ideas, and in fact their publications have not mentioned the ideas in decades.

It is sad when the enemies of truth work to spread misinformation regarding this peaceful Christian religion.

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/20000622/
http://watchtower.org/e/dg/index.htm?article=article_09.htm

Answer 5

Yum Yum, I think you are refering to Jehovah's Witnesses and their calculations that 1975 would end 6,000 years of mans existance and 1975 would be the "end time" as you refer to it.

Since they are the only ones I know of who have made such a calculation and it is now 2007, I guess the end of 6000 years of mans existance either was not in 1975 or it had no significance.

The JW's calcualtions are somewhat compelling but not really provable.

Answer 6

The first human man and woman, each with a soul, were created here about one million years ago. Much later, about 37,000 years ago, Adam and Eve, as biologically uplifting Sons of God, came down here and genetically up-stepped us to "modern man". Thus, Cain did not mate with his mother, Eve; rather he went out into the land of Nod and selected a superior human woman Nodite to marry from many millions of humans then.

Religion alone is confusing; science alone is confusing; the best of religion plus the best of science is supernal reality seeking and finding.

My joke: "Holy Cloned Cow ! Science plus religion !" Ha ha

Please drop all "end times" unspiritual prophecies. See and believe John 3:16 and 17 and Eph 3:21 Also, everything in the "Book of Revelation of Jesus Christ" is a small glimpse in the better parts of the ETERNAL NOW (not future) nature of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Words to us are still: "Fear not ! Be of good cheer ! Rejoice ! AM here with you always !" Amen !

Peace and progress,
Brother Dave, a Jesusonian Christian Truthist
http://www.PureChristians.org/ Gospel enlarging website,
proclaiming worldwide the True Religion
OF JESUS and ABOUT JESUS and IN JESUS
Come and share !

Answer 7

Christians of 1500 years ago also assumed that the 6,000-mark was imminent. If so, then we're at 7,500.

But humans are much older, of course: 100,000 to 200,000 years.

Answer 8

The 6,000 year mark passed a million years ago. BTW, this planet is billions of years old. Adam and Eve is a made up story.

Answer 9

The last I checked humans have been around for about 150,000 to 200,000 years. Adam and Eve must be rough translations from the original language. They were probably called "Ugh" and "Grappa!"

Answer 10

Genetic studies have indicated Homo sapiens or humans arose in East Africa - possibly Ethiopia or Tanzania - just over 200,000 years ago.