How Long is a Year in the Bible: Summary

Many people believe that time in the Bible is different from today, but it’s really not.  A year in the Bible was 360 days and a year on our modern calendars is 365 days. So, what about the 5 days difference? The Biblical calendar and our current Gregorian calendar both use leap years to stay in sync with nature, so keep reading.

Biblical Calendar: Days, Weeks, Months, Seasons, Years, and Leap Years

From the beginning of the Bible, God was very clear that one evening and one morning made a day, and then He gave us the sun and the moon to determine days, seasons and years. 

Genesis 1 – ⁵ God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.   ¹⁴ Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; ¹⁵ and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. ¹⁶ Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.

So, although there weren’t any calendars with dates in Day-Month-Year format, like our current Gregorian Calendar that was established in AD 1582, the people accounted for time based on natural observation.  Below is a simple explanation of how days, weeks, months and years were determined. 

• Days begin at sunset because of the first day in the Bible.  Sunset occurs due to the rotation of the earth which is approximately 360^◦ or one full rotation every day.
• Weeks are comprised of 7 sunsets.
• Months are stated as 30 days (e.g., 1260 days = 42 months).  Months begin when the new moon is visible which occurs about 15 days after a full moon.  A new moon occurs approximately every 29.5 days due to the orbit of the moon around the earth. 
• Seasons are caused, in simple terms, by the earth orbiting the sun.  Spring and Fall begin on the Equinox when days and nights are 12 hours each; and Summer and Winter begin on the Solstice which is the longest day and the longest night, respectively.  Seasons are observed for planting, harvesting, etc. 
• Years are stated as 360 days & begin after 12 or 13 new moons.
• Leap Years were added to sync the 360 day year with the ~365 days that it takes for the earth to orbit the sun.

Gregorian Calendar vs. Biblical Calendar

How Long is a Year in the Bible? A year in the Bible is basically the same as a year on our current calendar. As shown below, our current Gregorian Calendar is 365 days and the Biblical Calendar is 360 days. The Gregorian Calendar has a leap year every 4 years and the Biblical Calendar has a leap year every 6 years and every 40 years.

A Year in the Bible: 12 Months-360 Days vs 365 Days

How Long is a Year in the Bible? A year in the Bible is basically the same as a year on our current calendar. As show below, the Gregorian Calendar there are 12 months with 30 or 31 days, except February. The Biblical Calendar has 12 months of 30 days each except during leap years. Just before the Israelites were freed from Egypt, God set the first month of the year as Abib, which is later called Nisan (Exodus 12:2, 13:4; Esther 3:7).  Our first month occurs in January and the Biblical first month occurs in March or April after the Spring Equinox when the barley and flax crops are budding (Exodus 9:31).

Gregorian Calendar vs. Biblical Calendar: 6,000 Years

According to the Biblical Timeline, approximately 6,000 years have elapsed since the beginning of the Bible.  As shown below, over a 6,000 year period, the Biblical Calendar only has 45 more days than our Gregorian Calendar. To understand how I determined the 45 day difference, please see the calculations.

Gregorian Calendar Calculations:  There are 365.25 (rounded) days in a solar year, therefore 1 day is added every 4 years (.25 x 4 = 1).  To account for the difference between the rounded year (365.25) and the exact solar year (365.24219), century years are omitted unless the year is exactly divisible by 400.  Therefore, the calculations are as follows:

Leap Years = (6000/4)–(6000/100)+(6000/400) = 1455

1. Divide by 4 for the every 4 year leap year = 6000/4 = 1500
2. Divide by 100 to omit century years = 6000/100 = 60
3. Divide by 400 to include century years that are exactly divisible by 400 = 6000/400 = 15
4. Sum 1500-60+15 = 1455

Standard Years = 6000 – 1455 = 4545

Days (Leap) = 1455 Yrs x 366 Days = 532,530

Days (Std) = 4545 Yrs x 365 Days = 1,658,925

Total Gregorian Years = 532,530 + 1,658,925 = 2,191,455

Biblical Calendar Calculations:  There are 360 days in a Biblical year, therefore 30 days are added every 6 years ((365-360) x 6 = 30) to account for the 5 day per year difference.  However, as we saw from the calculations in the Gregorian calendar, the days for the earth to orbit the sun are closer to 365.25, so an additional .25 has to be added to the calendar to stay in sync with nature. In total, every 40-year cycle has 7 leap years of 30 days. The Biblical Calendar calculation is as follows:

Leap Years = (6000/40) x 7 = 1050

Standard Years = 6000 – 1050 = 4950

Days (Leap) = 1050 x 390 Days = 409,500

Days (Std)  = 4950 x 360 Days = 1,782,000

Total Biblical Years = 409,500 + 1,782,000 = 2,191,500

Continue Reading…How Many Years From Adam to Jesus?

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