Why is there not a single date in the Bible? The question popped into my head while I was thinking about the Jews, their exodus, and the founding of Jerusalem. I wondered why they didn't even write down the year they formed their city?

Why is there not a single date in the bible? We have no idea when anyone was born, people died, or when specific things happened.

I thought this would have been due to discrepancies in calendars or not having calendars, but when I did a little bit of research, I found they have had the Roman calendar since about 700 BC (at least).  It is completely understandable that there wouldn't be dates for things, but I would have expected some.

We know the day, month, and year that people like Alexander the Great lived and died, so humans did keep record of these things. I just read something (on how the Jews kept genealogy) that said the Jews were meticulous record keepers, so why not write down dates? Even if it were just the year in which something happened.

The only references to time are relative in days, or years (ex. Matt 1:17, Acts 28:12)
The "AD/BC" way of counting dates that you want dates to 525 AD by Dionysius Exiguus.  Prior to that, people kept time in "regnal" time, meaning that they would count the Xth year of the reign of Y. Since the Old Testament was pretty much complete by 400BC (nearly a milennia earlier) and the New Testament by 95 AD, it would be every bit as odd to see an "AD/BC" date as would to see a reference to Miley Cyrus in the text.

The Bible has many, many "regnal" dates, perhaps most famously in Luke:


  And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)


1 &amp; 2 Kings does a lot of this as well:


  16:23 In the thirty and first year of Asa king of Judah began Omri to reign over Israel, twelve years: six years reigned he in Tirzah.


Even the prophet Haggai gave us specific dates:


  In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying


These are the dates you should be looking for.

Finally, as a simple thought exercise - remember this. BC dates are before Christ. If you knew that you were living in, say, 587 BC, you'd know that the Messiah would be arriving in, oh, 587 years. Kind of removes the need for a prophetic word of God, don't you think?



Update: What about months?

The Hebrew Calendar has 13 months with different non-Roman names. (Or, more precisely, years in which there are two months of Adar) Even today, many countries use different calendars with different month names. Here in Esther, we read:


  In the first month (that is, the month of Nisan), in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus’ reign, pur (that is, the lot) was cast before Haman in order to determine a day and a month. It turned out to be the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar).


Remember, the Romans didn't even bother to name two of their months, and most of them were ordinal (Sept=7, Oct=8, Nov=9, Dec=10). Months just aren't that important to an agrarian society. They care about seasons - planting, harvesting, starving. Dates are of concern to bureaucrats and historians - and history to a Greek person would be totally different than to a modern (read Herodutus!) Asking "Why no dates" really is like asking a farmer why he doesn't wear a watch, or asking a fish why he doesn't ride a bike.