Bishop Ussher, John Lightfoot and the Age of Creation

Abstract

One of the most commonly quoted dates in historical geology texts is the time of creation as calculated by James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh and published in 1650. However, the date is frequently quoted incorrectly and the nine o'clock hour which is often quoted with the date comes not from Ussher, but from a contemporary, John Lightfoot of Cambridge. A 1658 English version of Ussher's Annales has creation occurring, “. . . . upon the entrance of the night preceding the twenty third day of October in the year of the Julian Calendar 710.” In the Annales there is no mention of an exact time. The nine o'clock hour comes from a 1642 work of John Lightfoot's and is associated not with the actual creation of the world, but is concerned only with the creation of man; “. . . about the third hour of the day, or nine of the clock in the morning.” Based upon his comments in the preface of Annales, Ussher appears to have used both astronomical cycles and the timing of events in the Old Testament to arrive at his pre...