A Study of this Jewish Year, 5785
How accurate is this Hebrew year 5785 since the creation of Adam and Eve?
All Orthodox groups accept the traditional Jewish calendar as established by rabbinic calculations (from Seder Olam Rabbah, 160 CE; contrast this to Archbishop Ussher (1581-1656) who spent years calculating the calendar only from the early 1600s, a difference of something like 1500 years.
And this year 5785 AM is understood as the number of years since the creation of Adam and Eve, not necessarily the universe; and this is the key similarity across Jewish Orthodox sects (Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Hasidic).
They follow the Masoretic Text of the Torah, which provides the genealogical basis for calculating 5785 years from creation of Adam and Eve to the present.
Reconciling 5785 AM (Hebrew) with 2025 CE (Gregorian)
This counts years from what is considered the creation of Adam and Eve, dated to Year 1 AM (3760 BCE). The current Hebrew year 5785 AM corresponds to 2024–2025 CE in the Gregorian calendar, giving a gap of 240 years.
Where Does the “240-Year Difference” Idea Come From? Key Issue: the Persian Period
The idea of a 240-year discrepancy comes from a debate over missing years in the Jewish calendar. Some scholars argue that rabbinic calculations in Seder Olam Rabbah omitted about 165–240 years, especially regarding the Persian period (538–323 BCE).
Secular historical records (Greek, Persian, and archaeological sources) state that the Persian period (from Cyrus’ conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE to Alexander the Great’s conquest in c. 330 BCE) lasted about 208–209 years — thus omitting 156 years from Jewish chronology.
Seder Olam Rabbah, however, records only about 52 years for the Persian period, drastically shortening it, critics claim.
If we add at least those missing 156 years to the current Jewish year (5785 AM), we get: 5785 + 156 = 5941. This means this year should be at least 5941 AM, if this is the only mistake.
But it is known that the Masoretic Text has an error in Exodus 12:40-41, where the text says Israel was in Egypt for 430 years, while the LXX/SP clarify that this includes time in Canaan and Egypt.
If this timeline is corrected, then the true Jewish year would be 5941 – 210 = 5731 AM
This would mean we still have 269 years to go before we arrive at the year 6000 AM.
But then again, Jewish figures maybe right
The Persian empire may reign from Cyrus’ conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE to Alexander the Great’s conquest in c. 330 BCE, which lasted about 208–209 years — but Cyrus decreed an order to allow the Jews to return to Judea during his reign, and not at the end of the Persian empire.
The first 52 years of the Persian period overlap with this timeframe (Cyrus’s decree, return of the exiles, and Temple reconstruction). While the Persian Empire continued to exist for another 156 years (until 331 BCE), Jewish scribes might not have recorded this period in detail because it was not relevant to their history. So incorporating just 52 years for the Persian period was what was needed and should be legitimate.
Second, the error in Exodus 12:40-41 might be just the omission of Canaan in the verse, while the figures for the rest of genealogy continue uninterrupted.
The Targum says the Israelites in Egypt were only 210 years; and in Exodus 12 Jonathan it explains why this differs from the Masoretic version of 430 years:
And the days of the dwelling of the sons of Israel in Mizraim were thirty weeks of years, (thirty times seven years,) which is the sum of two hundred and ten years. But the number of four hundred and thirty years (had passed away since) the Lord spake to Abraham, in the hour that He spake with him on the fifteenth of Nisan, between the divided parts, until the day that they went out of Mizraim. Exodus 12:40 Jonathan
Should the above two apparent misconceptions be viewed in their right perspectives, then the Jewish year of 5785 since the creation of Adam and Eve for this year should be closer to the truth than not.
Joel
A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob 