Some believe that for the biblical authors the chronology was theological in intent, functioning as prophecy and not as history. From the foundation of the temple onward, which gives the reigns in years (sometimes shorter periods) of kings in Israel and Judah.From Abraham's migration to the foundation of Solomon's temple, in which the chronology in Genesis continues to be arrived at by adding ages, but from Exodus on is usually given in statements.From the Creation to Abraham's migration to Canaan, during which events are dated by adding the ages of the patriarchs.The data it provides falls into three periods: The Jewish Bible (the Christian Old Testament) dates events either by simple arithmetic taking the creation of the world as the starting point, or, in the later books, by correlations between the reigns of kings in Israel and Judah. There is no consensus of which is right, however, without the additional 650 years in the Septuagint, according to Egyptologists the great Pyramids of Giza would pre-date the Flood (yet show no signs of water erosion) and provide no time for Tower of Babel event. The Masoretic text which lacks the 650 years of the Septuagint is the text used by most modern Bibles.

The dates between the Septuagint & Masoretic are conflicting by 650 years between the genealogy of Arphaxad to Nahor in Genesis 11:12-24. Some of the better-known calculations include Archbishop James Ussher, who placed it in 4004 BC, Isaac Newton in 4000 BC (both off the Masoretic Hebrew Bible), Martin Luther in 3961 BC, the traditional Hebrew calendar date of 3760 BC, and lastly the dates based on the Septuagint, of roughly 4650 BC.

Biblical literalist chronology is the attempt to correlate the historical dates used in the Bible with the chronology of actual events, typically starting with creation in Genesis 1:1.

Historical timeline of the bible