Creation year
Begins at CreationThe Creation-year count continues without interruption through the patriarchs, Egypt, Exodus, judges, kings, Babylon, Persia, and the first century. Its year turns at Tishri.
Reading the dates
One continuous count,
with two calendars beside it
The Creation years never restart. At the Exodus, Israel receives a Nisan-based sacred year that runs beside the continuing Creation count. Historical BC/AD dates are added as a comparison—not as a replacement for either biblical count.
The three labels
What each number means
Nisan year
Begins at the ExodusExodus 12 makes the Exodus month the beginning of months for Israel. This creates a second count; it does not erase or restart the years from Creation.
BC/AD year
Anchored to recorded historyBC/AD dates are placed beside the two biblical labels beginning with secure Babylonian anchors. Approximate or disputed historical dates remain visibly qualified.
The six-month boundary
Why one Nisan year crosses two Creation years
Nisan begins Israel’s sacred year in the spring. Tishri begins the next Creation year about six months later. Therefore a single Nisan-numbered year contains the latter portion of one Creation year and the opening portion of the next.
One Nisan yearNisan through Adar
Nisan–ElulCreation year A continues
TishriCreation year changes here
Tishri–AdarCreation year B begins
Haggai
Creation year 3402
Nisan year 956
Historical date 520 BC
Tishri →
Zechariah
Creation year 3403
Nisan year 956
Historical date 520 BC
The key pointHaggai and Zechariah can remain in the same Nisan year and historical BC year while carrying different Creation-year labels. No year has been added, removed, or restarted.
The names of the months
Israel’s months beside their Babylonian forms
Scripture normally numbers the months from Nisan. Four older biblical names also appear: Abib, Ziv, Ethanim, and Bul. After the Babylonian exile, Scripture records month names such as Nisan, Sivan, Elul, Chisleu, Tebeth, Shebat, and Adar. Their close relationship to Babylonian month names helps readers recognize the same season when moving between biblical and Babylonian records.
| Nisan order | Jewish month | Babylonian / Akkadian form | Older biblical name | Approximate season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nisan | Nisannu | Abib · Exodus 13:4 | March–April |
| 2 | Iyar | Ayyaru | Ziv · 1 Kings 6:1 | April–May |
| 3 | Sivan | Simanu | — | May–June |
| 4 | Tammuz | Duʾuzu | — | June–July |
| 5 | Av | Abu | — | July–August |
| 6 | Elul | Ululu | — | August–September |
| 7 | Tishri | Tashritu | Ethanim · 1 Kings 8:2 | September–October |
| 8 | Cheshvan | Arahsamna | Bul · 1 Kings 6:38 | October–November |
| 9 | Kislev | Kislimu | — | November–December |
| 10 | Tevet | Tebetu | — | December–January |
| 11 | Shevat | Shabatu | — | January–February |
| 12 | Adar | Addaru | — | February–March |
| Leap month | Adar II | Addaru II | Inserted when needed | Before Nisan |
The shared or related names do not change Exodus 12:2. On this timeline the sacred-year order still begins with Nisan.
Tishri begins the Creation-year boundary used by this project, while remaining the seventh month in the Nisan order.
The approximate Gregorian seasons can shift. They are reading aids, not fixed one-to-one replacements.
The Exodus
The new beginning of months does not replace Creation time
Exodus 12:2 · KJV
“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.”
Exodus 12:40–41 · KJV
“And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.”
The command says the month becomes first “to you”—to Israel. On this timeline, the Exodus is shown in Creation year 2446—the 2447th year from Creation—and at Nisan calendar year 0. The Creation count keeps moving; the Nisan count now runs beside it.
The historical anchor
How BC/AD dates enter the timeline
Creation year 3384=Nisan year 937=539 BC
The Nabonidus Chronicle dates the Persian capture of Babylon to 539 BC. The established timeline reaches that event at Creation year 3384 and Nisan year 937. This gives the project a historical comparison point without changing either biblical count.
Counting the continuous Creation years backward from that working anchor places Creation year 0 at approximately 3923 BC. Because Creation years turn at Tishri, a complete Creation year overlaps portions of two BC years; event months determine the precise side of the boundary.
An independent comparison
John Lightfoot’s biblical chronology
Seventeenth-century Hebrew scholar John Lightfoot developed his own harmony and chronology of the Old and New Testaments. He placed Creation near the autumnal equinox in 3929 BC. The Living Bible Timeline’s present 539 BC anchor produces an approximate Creation placement of 3923 BC—six years later.
Biblical chronology developed through his harmonies of the Old and New Testaments.
Continuous Creation-year count aligned with Babylon’s historically dated fall in 539 BC.
Supporting comparisonThe close result does not prove either chronology and does not show that Lightfoot used this project’s Nisan-year method. It does demonstrate that the working 3923 BC alignment falls within an established stream of serious biblical chronological calculation and is independently close to Lightfoot’s result.
Sources and limits
What this page claims—and what it does not
- The orderly spreadsheet remains authoritative for the project’s Creation-year dates.
- The Nisan count is a parallel Israelite sacred-year count beginning at the Exodus.
- BC/AD dates are external historical comparisons and do not silently revise the biblical counts.
- The present 539 BC anchor is a working historical alignment that can be tested against later Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman records.