The first date recorded in the Word of God is in the interesting book of Genesis, and in that chronological Genesis 5:3: “And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his own image; and called his name Seth.” This is surely important, as it establishes the point from whence we are to reckon; namely, the creation of man, and not, as is generally done, the creation of the world. This latter is nowhere revealed in Holy Scripture, nor does science throw any satisfactory light upon the antiquity of the globe. Its age cannot be determined, and all attempts to do so are simply guesswork — which we greatly dread, especially in the things of God.
There were ten fathers, from Adam to Noah — before the flood — and ten fathers, from Shem to Abram — after the flood; and their several ages when their sons were born, as noted in Genesis 5 and 11, when counted up, enable us to arrive at pretty accurate results. The reader may accept the dates in our English Bibles as on the whole correct, however widely chronologists may differ. Having thus shown from God’s Word how we determine the two first periods of man’s history, it will be seen that a solid basis is thus laid for a complete and accurate system of Biblical chronology; but in order to this task being satisfactorily accomplished, three things are absolutely requisite — the authority, the source, the principle. The authority is the Hebrew text, and not the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew; the source is the Word of God, and, in the first instance, Genesis 5; and the principle — specially applicable to the two great first periods of human history — when the sons were born, as already indicated.