Biblical Timeline Overview

Biblical timelines serve as essential tools for bridging the gap between ancient events and our modern comprehension of Scripture. By placing biblical stories and characters in chronological order, we see how God’s plan unfolds across the centuries with intentional design. Timelines can highlight key junctures, showing how pivotal occurrences—like covenants, conquests, exiles, and resurrections—fit into the larger tapestry of God’s redemptive work. This bigger picture helps believers appreciate the unstoppable continuity of His plan and observe the patience and faithfulness of God throughout history.

Moreover, understanding the “when” of biblical events can clarify the “why.” Aligning certain Biblical happenings with known dates in world history can provide insights into cultural influences, political shifts, and prophetic fulfillments. These connections bolster our confidence in the historical reliability of the Bible and affirm its divinely orchestrated nature. In essence, timelines enable believers to see both the overarching storyline of Scripture and the precise moments in which God demonstrated His sovereignty, weaving together countless details into a perfect and purposeful plan.

2270 BC

Tower of Babel

In disobedience to God’s command to fill the earth (Genesis 9:1), the people, all sharing one language, decided to settle and build a city; they found a plain in the land of Shinar. The people had two goals, to build for ourselves a city, and to build a tower whose top will reach into heaven. It appears the tower is an essential part of the object of building a city and a tower, namely to make for ourselves a name. Current historical and archeological evidence shows the Tower of Babel was most likely located at Eridu in Mesopotamia. Mankind was in defiance of God’s will that the entire earth should be populated. If left unchecked, they would undertake more deeds of evil and defiance. So, God confused their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech and scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. The confusion of language occurred in the fourth generation after the flood, about the time of the birth of Peleg (Genesis 10:25).

  1. 4000 BC — The First Adam
  2. 3870 BC — Seth is Born
  3. 3750 BC — Enosh is Born
  4. 3660 BC — Kenan is Born
  5. 3605 BC — Mahalalel is Born
  6. 3540 BC — Jared is Born
  7. 3380 BC — Enoch is Born
  8. 3310 BC — Methuselah is Born
  9. 3125 BC — Lamech is Born
  10. 3000 BC — The Birth of Noah
  11. 2450 BC — Shem is Born
  12. 2350 BC — The Great Flood
  13. 2270 BC — Tower of Babel
  14. 2000 BC — Abraham
  15. 1950 BC — Isaac is Born
  16. 1700 BC — Jacob and Sons go to Egypt
  17. 1570 BC — Moses is Born
  18. 1500 BC — Exodus From Egypt
  19. 1020 BC — King David of Judah
  20. 990 BC — King Solomon of Judah
  21. 586 BC — Babylonian Exile Begins
  22. 331 BC — Alexander the Great is defeated
  23. 175 BC — Reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes Begins
  24. 167 BC — Maccabean Revolt
  25. 4 BC — Jesus, the "Second Adam" is born
  26. AD 30 — Jesus’ Crucifixion
  27. AD 70 — Roman Conquest of Jerusalem