Anno Mundi

A Jewish gravestone using the Year After Creation (Anno Mundi) chronology, found just outside the Rotunda of Thessaloniki[1]
Calendar Today
Byzantine 21 November 7533
Hebrew 20 Cheshvan 5785
Gregorian 21 November 2024
Julian 8 November 2024
Inscription in Ballybough Cemetery, Ireland, indicating Anno Mundi 5618 (AD 1857)

Anno Mundi (from Latin "in the year of the world"; Hebrew: לבריאת העולם, romanizedLivryat haOlam, lit.'to the creation of the world'), abbreviated as AM or A.M., or Year After Creation,[1] is a calendar era based on the biblical accounts of the creation of the world and subsequent history. Two such calendar eras of notable use are:

While both eras reputedly begin with the creation of the world, their disparity in epoch lies in the biblical texts chosen to infer a year of creation. According to the Septuagint, the Earth seems to have been created roughly around 5500 BCE, and about 3760 BCE based on the Hebrew Masoretic text. Most of the 1,732-year difference resides in numerical discrepancies in the genealogies of the two versions of the Book of Genesis. Patriarchs from Adam to Terah, the father of Abraham, are said to be older by 100 years or more when they begat their named son in the Septuagint[4][5] than they were in the Latin Vulgate,[6] or the Hebrew Tanakh.[7] The net difference between the two major genealogies of Genesis is 1,466 years (ignoring the "second year after the flood" ambiguity), 85% of the total difference. (See Dating creation.)[original research?]

There are also discrepancies between methods of dating based on the text of the Bible vs. modern academic dating of landmark events used to calibrate year counts, such as the destruction of the First Temple—see Missing years (Jewish calendar).

  1. ^ a b Benjaminson, Chanii. "How old was Moses when The Torah was given at Mount Sinai". Chabad-Lubavitch Media Center. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
  2. ^ Dershowitz, Nachum; Reingold, Edward M. (1997), Calendrical Calculations (1st ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 11, ISBN 0-521-56474-3
  3. ^ "Hebrew Date Converter". hebcal.com. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  4. ^ "Septuagint Genesis – 5". The Greek Old Testament (Septuagint). Elpenor. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
  5. ^ "Septuagint Genesis – 11". The Greek Old Testament (Septuagint). Elpenor. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
  6. ^ Genesis 5; Genesis 11
  7. ^ Gen 5; Gen 11